Long-tailed Parakeet

The long-tailed parakeet is mainly green with a long blue tail. The male has a black cap and red cheek or face, and the female lacks the black cap and has less red on the cheek. It is an extremely social bird, allopatric with the red-breasted parakeet except in the Andaman Islands, where the two occur together (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is found in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sumatra, Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia. It is usually seen in small groups, but flocks of thousands have been reported in the Andamans and Borneo, mostly in the breeding season. Malay Peninsula birds breed from December to February and Andaman and Nicobar birds from February to March. Females lay two to four eggs, which take about 23 to 24 days to hatch, and chicks fledge at around seven weeks. SoIB 2023 rates it a High conservation priority, with a Restricted range of about 6,700 km² and insufficient data on trends (Wikipedia, general species account; SoIB 2023).