Poicephalus rueppellii
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
Rüppell's parrot (Poicephalus rueppellii) or Rueppell's parrot, is a bird that is endemic to southwestern Africa from central Namibia to southwest Angola. It lives in savanna where there are trees or in dry woodland. It is more common near streams or rivers. The name commemorates the German naturalist and explorer Eduard Rüppell.
Rüppell's parrot is 22–25 cm (8.7–9.8 in) long and weighs 121–156 g (4.3–5.5 oz). It has an overall black color. Both adult male and female birds have some yellow feathers on the leading edge of the wings, and yellow feathers covering their upper legs; in immature birds, the yellow is dull or missing. It is sexually dimorphic; adult female birds have blue feathers on the lower back and the rump, while male birds lose this blue feather coloration as they become mature.
Ruppell's parrot eats mainly seeds, flowers, leaves, arthropods, and bark. It has been found that during the rainy seasons they prefer to eat flowers and insects. Consistently they eat Terminalia pruniodies and occasionally they also eat fruit, preferring softer more tender ones.
Rüppell's parrot nests in tree cavities. The eggs are white and there... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Waterberg Plateau Park | 🇳🇦 Namibia |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Giraffe House | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
Likely
About 40% of wildlife watchers report a Rüppell's Parrot sighting in Waterberg Plateau Park on a given day, based on 57 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 28th most-seen of the 118 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
January–February and August
In those months about 50% of wildlife watchers report a Rüppell's Parrot in Waterberg Plateau Park on a given day, against about 20% in July, September and November, the lowest months. Those are among Waterberg Plateau Park's wettest months, with about 65 mm of rain a month against almost none in May. April and June have too few records to rate.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Rüppell's 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.
Only Waterberg Plateau Park, in our data
Waterberg Plateau Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Rüppell's Parrot sightings: about 40% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Rüppell's Parrot is recorded against all the birds logged in Waterberg Plateau Park (57 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.
