What Are the Types of Caique Parrots?

What are the types of caique parrots? There are two major sorts of caique parrots, and the beauty of these little birds is that they do no differ a lot in terms of personality. What are the types of caique parrots? Both species and subspecies each possess the playfulness and acrobatic abilities of each other. They are curious explorers who are always on the lookout for the next thing to investigate. They are intelligent little birds who are considered to be the funny guys of the pionus family. What are the types of caique parrots? They thrive best when they are with their sort, especially in captivity, but could potentially make friends with other like-sized parrots who are tolerant of them as they are of other parrot sorts.

Pionites Leucogaster

What are the types of caique parrots? The Pionites leucogaster, more commonly known as the white-bellied caique call the southern regions of the Amazon, hme. They are found in Northern Brazil to Bolivia. These little birds, which are also seen to congregate in Peru and Ecuador, sport an orange head, their lores, throats and sides of the head the colour of yellow. Its wings and back sport a beautiful green with a creamy-white coloured breast which runs all the way down to its belly. The white-bellied caique has a horn coloured beak, with reddish eyes.

Juvenile White – Bellied

When the white-bellied caique is in its juvenile stages, the head looks more brownish with a tuft of black feathers. Its beak sports markings of grey at its base and its eyes are brown.  The white bellied caique has two subspecies, one being the one just mentioned. The other sub specie of a white bellied caique can be identified by its green thighs and flanks. Whereas its close cousin, the Yellow – thighed caique has similarly coloured thighs and flanks but has a yellow tail, whereas the white bellied caique has a green tail.

Pionites Melanocephala

What are the types of caique parrots? The Pionites melanocephala or the black-headed caique, sports more of a brownish coloured head which later transforms to black, earning it its name. During the juvenile stages, the black bellied caique sports a belly which looks more yellowish until it turn into the mature cream-white. All the orange and yellow areas of the juvenile black headed caique look paler and only come to full colour upon maturity. Even the band found at the back of the neck is paler in comparison to a much older bird of the same sort.

This caique sort is generally in the colour of yellow, having feathers of such on its cheeks, throat, thighs and flanks. An orange band can be found of the hind neck of the specie which is bordered by a few feathers that are a hint of blue. The back wings, rump and upper tail of the black bellied caique are all green. As with its close cousin, the white-bellied caique, the black bellied caique has the similar creamy white coloured belly as its kin. The utmost part of the black bellied caique tail is yellow. It has a grayish black beak with orangey-red eyes.

Caique Gender

What are the types of caique parrots? All birds are difficult to sex because their reproductive organs are not visible to the naked eye. Some birds are easier to sex due to distinct male/female colouration. Other times, gender can be determined simply by the size and measure of the bird. But more often than not, sexing a bird is neither an easy nor a comfortable task because it involves invasive probing of its genitalia.

When a juvenile black-headed caique is in its juvenile stage, its head feathers are more of a dark brownish colour with a smattering of black feathers. In essence, if we know which of the caique specie we are looking for, we would be able to tell the sort of caique parrot we are looking at, when we see one, but how about the sex of the parrot? Not so easy to tell with a glance. It is difficult to tell a male from a female bird simply by sight. The only way to test for the bird’s gender is to take it to an avian vet to get a DNA test, or via the use of a surgical probe, with a procedure called endoscopy.

Caique Lifespan

What are the types of caique parrots? Caique parrots are hardy little fellas that live long and live well if given the proper care and provided with the right living conditions whilst being raised. Caique parrots in the wild have to contend with big bird predators, and of course, larger opportunistic mammals that are fast enough to capture one of these tiny feathered hoppers.

In nature, research has shown that caiques have the ability to live long lives of twenty years and more. Being part of a flock in the wild gives some sort of assurance and safety to the caique parrots because there is always usually one or two caique parrots who act as look out for the other caiques in the flock, which are up in the canopy, when it is feeding time. The beauty of caiques is that they like to congregate in small groups of about 8-10 birds, essentially part of a posse that gives them safety in numbers.

Caique in Captivity

In captivity, there have been caique parrots that have been reported to live for more than over 2 decades! Providing the proper living facilities, giving the caique parrots the essential nutrition they require and ample socialization time ensures the long life of your caique parrots. With proper cage maintenance, which includes enclosure upkeep and cleaning, changing the bird bath and water bowl, replacing base-cage sheets, are some of the ways you can ensure a clean lifestyle for your messy buddy. Not having the social graces at the table, caiques are much like their other feathered cousins when it comes to eating , drinking and playing – they can make a pretty good job of soiling up the stuff that is inside of their cages. To allow your caique bird the longevity it is actually afforded, maintaining daily cleanliness and routine sanitation of bird abode is crucial.

South American Natives

These little birds, which originate, eat and breed in South America, lives up on the canopy of trees in the wild, and found primarily in tropical regions of the world. They congregate in small pairs. Other times they can be seen in groups of about 30 birds at the most. They like to gather in pairs and groups in places where there is water. Water is an essential part of living and caique birds are usually found where there is water nearby. In groups, caique birds can be pretty noisy with their bird calls and vocalization.

Smart Parrots

What are the types of caique parrots? The caique parrot is an extremely intelligent bird and is likened to the equally smart scarlet macaw in terms of cleverness. The caique parrot is an avid explorer and will check out any new thing it is not familiar with. Leave them outside of their enclosure for a little while and they will surely go for that new little trinket you brought home. They could even go and investigate someone new that they have been introduced to, so make sure that your visitors are given a heads up about your curious caique lest they freak out when they are greeted by your sociable parrot.

These birds can get pretty worked up and react with surprise or become startled when a new situation needs to be dealt with. They can also react pretty strongly to anything out of the ordinary, such as new people in the house, a new purchase (they are the ultimate investigators of all things new, remember?), and even habitual stuff like being set down or placed back into their enclosures.

Keep them Stimulated

What are the types of caique parrots? Since they are very smart birds, it will be important to keep them stimulated both physically and mentally. Caiques do well when they are handled frequently, so make sure that you visit, interact and play with your caique bird often. Doing so will allow the birds get used to you and other handlers in the family.

Caique parrots are not your run-of-the-mill kind of parrots who speak incessantly but they are entertainingly captivating and colourful birds that can be noisy when congregated in numbers. On its own, it is a parrot that makes “tolerable sounds”. When buying a caique or adopting one, be sure that you can go and visit the bird before making a commitment. Being given permission to visit the bird will give you an idea of what sort of noises the bird makes and can therefore give you better insight on whether or not the caique would be an acceptable addition to your home without disturbing the neighborhood peace.

Keep In Mind

What are the types of caique parrots? Should you be looking to breed your caique parrot, make sure you know what you’ll be up for because caique birds can be pretty challenging to breed in captivity for the inexperienced. Given the proper housing, nesting and care that a newly mated female caique will need the proper maintenance and care, the proper bedding and nesting box, caiques could breed successfully. To avoid any major mistakes, it is best that any new caique owner, who intends to breed their birds, consult and work with one who has been recently able to breed them as well.