Red-breasted Pygmy-Parrot

Micropsitta bruijnii

The red-breasted pygmy parrot is a species of parrot in the family Psittaculidae. Its natural habitat is the boreal forests, subtropical or tropical dry forests, and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests of the Maluku Islands and Melanesia.
Red-breasted Pygmy Parrot (Micropsitta bruijnii bruijnii) This is the cutest tiniest and the sought after parrot species by birdwatchers. This is the Red-breasted Pygmy Parrot (Micropsitta bruijnii bruijnii) It is smaller than a Zebra finch. This subspecies is found in the mountains of Vogelkop to Owen Stanley Range. Because of the lack of termite mounds in the highlands where the lowland species make nests and breed, these do as most of the other parrot species , they breed in excavated nests in trees. Birdingindonesia,Geotagged,Indonesia,Mehd Halaouate,Micropsitta bruijnii,Winter,red-breasted pygmy parrot

Appearance

As their name suggests, the pygmy parrots are the smallest genus of all parrots, with distribution confined to islands off South-east Asia. This particular species is found at higher altitudes than other pygmy parrots, and uses trees rather than arboreal termite nests as breeding sites. They have jerky movements, rather reminiscent of nuthatches, and cling close to the bark as they search for lichens growing in the trees, which form the majority of their diet. Red-breasted pygmy parrots are only 8 cm in length.
Red-breasted Pygmy-Parrot, Minggre, Arfak Mountains, Papua Only 8cm in length, these tiny cute parrot feed mostly on lichens. Arfak Mountains,Australia (continent),Geotagged,Indonesia,Micropsitta bruijnii,Minggre,New Guinea,Papua,Papua 2023,Red-breasted Pygmy-Parrot,Spring,Vogelkop,West Papua,Western New Guinea

Naming

The species has five subspecies:
⤷ "M. b. bruijnii" - mountains of New Guinea
⤷ "M. b. buruensis" - Buru
⤷ "M. b. necopinata" - New Britain and New Ireland
⤷ "M. b. pileata" - Seram
⤷ "M. b. rosea" - Bougainville, Guadalcanal and Kolambangara in the Solomon Islands

The specific name "bruijnii" commemorates the Dutch plume merchant Antonie Augustus Bruijn.

Status

The global population size has not been quantified, but the species is reported to be common to uncommon due to deforestation and habitat lost on this limited range. It is best to study these birds in their natural habitat because they do not thrive in captivity.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

Status: Least concern
EX EW CR EN VU NT LC
Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionChordata
ClassAves
OrderPsittaciformes
FamilyPsittaculidae
GenusMicropsitta
SpeciesM. bruijnii
Photographed in
Indonesia