Aratinga canicularis
Silhouette: Matías Muñoz · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
Eupsittula canicularis, also known as the orange-fronted parakeet, orange-fronted conure, half-moon conure or Petz's conure is a vulnerable species of birds in subfamily Arinae of the family Psittacidae, the African and New World parrots. It is found from western Mexico to Costa Rica.
The orange-fronted parakeet was formally described in 1758 by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other parrots in the genus Psittacus and coined the binomial name Psittacus canicularis. The type locality is northwestern Costa Rica. Linnaeus based his description on the "red and blue-headed parakeet" that had been described and illustrated in 1751 by the English naturalist George Edwards in the fourth part of his A Natural History of Common Birds. The orange-fronted parakeet is now one of five species placed in the genus Eupsittula that was introduced in 1853 by the French naturalist Charles Lucien Bonaparte. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek eu meaning "good" with the Modern Latin psittula meaning "little parrot". The specific epithet canicularis is Latin meaning "of the bright star Sirius".
The orange... Wikipedia →
Recording0:11
Mexico · 2022
© Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:28
Honduras · 2018
© Francisco Dubón · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:38
Mexico · 2023
© Yamel Rubio Rocha · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Las Baulas Marine National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | Santa Rosa National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 3 | Rincón de la Vieja National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 4 | Masaya Volcano National Park | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua | |
| 5 | Palo Verde National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 6 | El Triunfo | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 7 | Cabo Blanco Absolute Nature Reserve | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 8 | Ostional Wildlife Refuge | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 9 | Carara National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 10 | La Tigra National Park | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 11 | Cañón del Sumidero National Park | 🇲🇽 Mexico | |
| 12 | Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 13 | Manuel Antonio National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 14 | Tenorio Volcano National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 15 | Marino Ballena National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 16 | Arenal Volcano National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Managua | 🇳🇮 Nicaragua | |
| 2 | Tegucigalpa | 🇭🇳 Honduras | |
| 3 | San Salvador | 🇸🇻 El Salvador | |
| 4 | Guadalajara | 🇲🇽 México | |
| 5 | San José | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica |
Possible
About 30% of wildlife watchers report an Orange-fronted Parakeet sighting in Palo Verde National Park on a given day, based on 507 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 45th most-seen of the 274 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 60%, and over a week to about 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report an Orange-fronted Parakeet in Palo Verde National Park on a given day, against about 20% in April–May, July–September and November, the lowest months. That is one of Palo Verde National Park's driest months, with about 35 mm of rain against 480 mm in October.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Orange-fronted Parakeet sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 16
Of the 16 parks where we can rate Orange-fronted Parakeet sightings, Palo Verde National Park ranks 5th at about 30%. The best odds are in Las Baulas Marine National Park (Costa Rica, about 50%), Santa Rosa National Park (Costa Rica, about 40%) and Rincón de la Vieja National Park (Costa Rica, about 40%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Psittacidae
The closest relatives of the Orange-fronted Parakeet that you can see in Palo Verde National Park (family Psittacidae, New World and African Parrots) are Yellow-naped Parrot (about 30%), White-fronted Parrot (about 20%) and Orange-chinned Parakeet (about 20%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Orange-fronted Parakeet is recorded against all the birds logged in Palo Verde National Park (507 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.
