Vernal Hanging Parrot

The vernal hanging parrot is a small, mainly green hanging parrot, only 14 cm long with a short tail. The adult male has a red rump and bill and a blue throat patch. It is less gregarious than some of its relatives and usually in small groups outside the breeding season. Its flight is swift and direct and the call is a raucous chattering (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is a resident breeder in the Indian subcontinent and some other parts of Southeast Asia, making local movements driven mainly by the availability of the fruit, seeds, buds and blossoms that make up its diet. It nests in tree holes lined with fragments of leaves, laying two to four, usually three, white eggs; the female incubates for about 20 days and the chicks leave the nest about 33 days after hatching. SoIB 2023 rates it a Low conservation priority, a resident and local migrant of forest and plantation with a Moderate range and a rapidly increasing current trend of about 6% a year (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).