Pionites melanocephalus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~40% in a week ~80%
The black-headed parrot (Pionites melanocephalus; sometimes incorrectly Pionites melanocephala) is a species of bird in subfamily Arinae of the family Psittacidae, the African and New World parrots. Other colloquial names are black-crowned parrot, black-capped parrot, black-headed caique, and for subspecies P. m. pallidus, pallid caique. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
The black-headed parrot was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other parrots in the genus Psittacus and coined the binomial name Psittacus melanocephalus. Linnaeus based his account on the "white-breasted parrot" that had been described and illustrated in 1751 by the English naturalist George Edwards in his multivolume work "A Natural History of Uncommon Birds". Linnaeus gave the type locality as Mexico but this has been changed to Caracas in Venezuela as given by Edwards. The black-headed parrot is now placed together with the white-bellied parrot in the genus Pionites that was introduced in 1890 by the German ornithologist Ferdinand Heine... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 2 | Yasuní National Park | 🇪🇨 Ecuador | |
| 3 | Amacayacu National Natural Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 4 | Sierra de la Macarena National Park | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 5 | Brownsberg Nature Park | 🇸🇷 Suriname |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Black-headed Parrot sighting in Amacayacu National Natural Park on a given day, based on 122 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 71st most-seen of the 436 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 40%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January and June
In those months about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Black-headed Parrot in Amacayacu National Natural Park on a given day, against about 10% in February, April and October–December, the lowest months.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Black-headed Parrot sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
3rd of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Black-headed Parrot sightings, Amacayacu National Natural Park ranks 3rd at about 20%. The best odds are in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (Ecuador, about 30%) and Yasuní National Park (Ecuador, about 30%).
Same family: Psittacidae
The closest relatives of the Black-headed Parrot that you can see in Amacayacu National Natural Park (family Psittacidae, New World and African Parrots) are Tui Parakeet (about 40%), Dusky-headed Parakeet (about 30%) and Blue-headed Parrot (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Black-headed Parrot is recorded against all the birds logged in Amacayacu National Natural Park (122 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
