Pionites melanocephalus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
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 |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Black-headed Parrot sighting in Sierra de la Macarena National Park on a given day, based on 85 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 135th most-seen of the 418 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and May
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Black-headed Parrot in Sierra de la Macarena National Park on a given day, against under 5% in February–March, August–October and December, the lowest months. Those are among Sierra de la Macarena National Park's wettest months, with about 370 mm of rain a month against 95 mm in January.
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.
4th of 5
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Black-headed Parrot sightings, Sierra de la Macarena National Park ranks 4th at about 10%. The best odds are in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (Ecuador, about 30%), Yasuní National Park (Ecuador, about 30%) and Amacayacu National Natural Park (Colombia, about 20%).
Same family: Psittacidae
The closest relatives of the Black-headed Parrot that you can see in Sierra de la Macarena National Park (family Psittacidae, New World and African Parrots) are Chestnut-fronted Macaw (about 30%), Blue-headed Parrot (about 20%) and Cobalt-winged Parakeet (about 20%), 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 Sierra de la Macarena National Park (85 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.
