African Wildlife & Environment Issue 82

BIRDING

Food Meyer’s Parrots’ diet includes fruit, especially various fig species, seeds, nuts, berries and cultivated crops. Seeds of the various leguminous trees of the African woodlands are especially favoured, providing their staple food in some areas. Although they normally travel in pairs or small flocks, Meyer's Parrots may gather in much larger numbers where food is plentiful. In drought years they tend

to wander in search of food. It is the only avian species able to break open the pods and seeds of the many leguminous trees that characterise miombo woodland ( Brachystegia ), allowing the bird to enjoy an abundant food supply with little competition. Brown-headed Parrots are seen as opportunistic generalists, as a result of their natural diet, changing dependency on a food source being available or unavailable in their present environment. Typically, they feed on berries, figs, shoots, flowers, fruits, and seeds but more specifically, they tend to prefer the flowers and fruits of the Natal Mahogany tree Trichilia emetica , Vachellia species and lepidoptera larvae. They have also been recorded regularly feeding on the nectar of flowering trees such as the Sausage tree Kigelia africana . They may also feed on seeds of the exotic Saligna gum Eucalyptus grandis. Rüppell's Parrots eat mainly seeds, flowers, leaves, anthropods, and bark. It has been found that during the rainy seasons they prefer to eat flowers and insects. They regularly eat Terminalia pruniodes seeds and occasionally they also eat fruit, preferring softer more tender species.Acacia ( Vachellia ) buds and pods are also targeted by groups of Rüppell's Parrots, especially Camel thorn Vachellia erioloba , as well as those of the Baobab Adansonia digitata and Leadwood trees Combretum imberbe .

Brown-headed Parrot resting during the heat of the day

nigrescens and Mopane Colophospermum mopane - trees, but absent from open savannah and dense woodland.Three subspecies have been recognised in the past, based on colouration and size (Forshaw 1989) but the third is now in doubt. P. c. cryptoxanthus ranges from Northern KwaZulu-Natal northwards to southern Mozambique and southeastern Zimbabwe. P. c. tanganyikae is distinguished in having a much paler and more greenish plumage, with less brown on the head, throat, neck and rump. The underparts appear to be brighter and more yellowish. It occurs north of the Save River in Mozambique, southern Malawi, eastern Tanzania and coastal Kenya. P. c. zanzibaricus. The existence of this putative third subspecies, confined to the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba, is now doubted. Rüppell's Parrot Poicephalus rueppellii is endemic to southwestern Africa, from central Namibia to southwest Angola. It lives in savanna where there are trees or in dry woodland, showing a preference for tall trees. Reporting rates are four times higher on the Namibian escarpment vegetation type than any other biome. It is more common near streams or rivers. The name commemorates the German naturalist and explorer Eduard Rüppell.

46 | African Wildlife & Environment | Issue 82 (2022)