Poicephalus robustus fuscicollis (Kuhl, 1820)

Beak and Diet

Description: The Cape parrot is a short-tailed, moderately large bird with a very large beak that it uses to crack all types of hard nuts and fruit kernels, particularly those from African yellowwood trees (Podocarpus spp.). This diet differs from the closely related savanna species Poicephalus fuscicollis, which feeds on a wide variety of trees from tropical woodlands, such as marula, Commiphora spp., and Terminalia spp.

Plumage Differences by Age and Sex

All these species are sexually dimorphic; females typically have an orange frontal patch on the forehead. Juveniles also have a larger orange-pink patch on the forehead, but do not have the red markings on the shoulders and legs that adults have.

Plumage Variation

These plumage traits vary between individual birds and between the three recognized forms of the species.

Endemic Range

Distribution and habitat: The Cape parrot is endemic to South Africa. It lives in Afromontane forests at moderate altitudes in eastern South Africa, ranging from the coastal escarpment near sea level up to midlands at around 1000 meters.

Habitat Forest Characteristics

These Afromontane forests form a series of small patches across the south and east of South Africa, and are dominated by yellowwood trees: Podocarpus latifolius, Podocarpus falcatus, and Podocarpus henkelii.

Disjunct Population Distribution

Cape parrots have a disjunct distribution. Their largest population is centered in the Amathole mountains of Eastern Cape Province, and extends east with several large gaps through the Mthatha escarpment and Pondoland in Eastern Cape, and through the southern midlands of KwaZulu-Natal Province to Karkloof, near Pietermaritzburg. A very small population of around 30 individuals lives over 600 kilometers further north, in the Magoebaskloof area of Limpopo Province.

Unoccupied Habitat Areas

Cape parrots are not found in large areas of Afromontane forest, including those along South Africa's southern coast near Knysna, the higher-altitude Afromontane forests in the Drakensberg mountains of KwaZulu-Natal, or the moderate-altitude forests of northern KwaZulu-Natal province and Eswatini. These unoccupied areas separate the KwaZulu-Natal midlands population from the Limpopo escarpment population. All of these unoccupied areas fall within the Cape parrot's dispersal range, and there are historical records of Cape parrots from northern KwaZulu-Natal.