Pionites melanocephalus
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~60% in a week ~90%
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 30% of wildlife watchers report a Black-headed Parrot sighting in Yasuní National Park on a given day, based on 846 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 46th most-seen of the 533 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.
October
In that month about 40% of wildlife watchers report a Black-headed Parrot in Yasuní National Park on a given day, against about 20% in April, July–September and December–February, 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.
Among the best
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Black-headed Parrot sightings, Yasuní National Park ranks 2nd at about 30%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Cuyabeno Wildlife Reserve (Ecuador, about 30%).
Same family: Psittacidae
The closest relatives of the Black-headed Parrot that you can see in Yasuní National Park (family Psittacidae, New World and African Parrots) are Cobalt-winged Parakeet (about 50%), Mealy Parrot (about 40%) and Blue-headed Parrot (about 40%), 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 Yasuní National Park (846 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.
