Fiery-shouldered Parakeet

Locally fairly common but patchy and elusive; usually detected as fast, screeching flocks overhead rather than perched. Best chances are dawn/dusk movements along the Escalera. A near-guaranteed Pantepui specialty on a dedicated tepui trip, but you work for perched views.

Small green Pyrrhura with long, pointed tail and pale (horn) bill set in a white bare eye-ring. Diagnostic feature is the fiery yellow-orange-to-red carpal edge and lesser underwing coverts at the bend of the wing — visible even perched and flashing in flight. Note the reddish-brown ear-coverts, scaly whitish-edged neck/breast feathers, and a dull reddish-brown belly patch. Maroon tail below.

Humid premontane and montane (cloud) forest, forest edge and dense secondary growth on tepui slopes, roughly 700–1,800 m.

Travels in noisy, fast, tight flocks of 6–30, often high over the canopy; perches in fruiting and flowering trees where it can sit quietly and be easy to miss. Most vocal and active early morning and late afternoon.

Typical Pyrrhura rollicking, screechy chatter — a rapid series of harsh, grating 'chrr-chrr' notes given in flight and from perch; harsher and less musical than a true parakeet. Recordings: search 'Pyrrhura egregia' or 'Fiery-shouldered Parakeet' on Xeno-canto and the Macaulay Library.

Park clients at a known fruiting tree or an open vista on the Escalera at first light and scan for flocks crossing the road; call attention to the wing-bend flash, which is the clincher over Painted Parakeet. Scope perched birds the moment a flock settles — they go quiet fast.