Abstract
Just over three years ago, I had never seen a Brown-headed Parrot (Poicephalus cryptoxanthus). In fact, I must have skipped the page in the field guide that I was using because I didn't know they existed. But when Professor Mike Perrin of the Research Centre for African Parrot Conservation at the University of Natal asked if I would study them for a Ph.D., I scanned the available ornithological field guides for some background information.
All of the guides featured them as common residents in eastern South Africa and Mozambique. One guide informed me that this species ate fruit, nuts and berries, whilst another described the call as a "typical parrotlike shriek." Apart from that, very little information was given but it seemed easy enough. I was going to study a common parrot, which was partial to muesli (granola in the USA) and sounded like a parrot. All that was required was a comfortable field site where I could study the birds and that is when I began to suspect that the field guides were maybe being slightly economical with the truth. So in the next few pages, I'll review my findings concerning this relatively small parrot, which I believe is in rapid and largely unnoticed decline, especially in South Africa.
Description
An adult Brown-headed Parrot is around 22 to 23 ems in length. The overall colour is green; metallic green on the rump. The green shades into grey on the neck and head becoming brownish on the nape and crown. The species name cryptoxarubus, means "hidden yellow" and refers to the bright
yellow of the underwing coverts. In some individuals this yellow extends to the carpal edge of the wing and is visible in a resting individual. In many cases yellow patches appear on the median and lesser wing coverts and even on the hindneck, making these birds individually distinct.
Range
Historically, Brown-headed Parrots occurred up the eastern seaboard of southern Africa, from northeastern South Africa, which includes KwaZulu Natal, Mpumulanga and Northern Province, through southeastern Zimbabwe and Malawi, the whole of Mozambique, then through eastern Tanzania into southern Kenya. Concomitant with this distribution, three subspecies have been recognized, based on coloration and size, P. cryptoxantbus cryptoxantbus in the south, P. cryptoxantbus tanganyileae in northern Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya, and P. cryptoxantbus zanzibaricus, which is confined to the islands of Zanzibar and Pemba. However, the existence of the third subspecies is extremely dubious and almost certainly does not exist now, if
it ever did. Here I will concentrate on the situation regarding the nominate race, P. cryptoxantbus cryptoxantbus:
Wild Sightings
Environmental conservation in the province of KwaZulu Natal is under the jurisdiction of KwaZulu Natal Conservation (formerly the Natal Parks Board). Within the historical distribution of Brown-headed Parrots, KZNC manages four game reserves. In three of these reserves, Mkuzi (36,000 hectares), Ndumo (10,117 hectares) and Tembe (around 15,000 hectares), the species is listed as "common" in their bird checklist, whereas in Itala (29, 653 hectares) it is listed as "occurring." After various visits to these reserves, I informed the head of ornithology, for KZNC that I was suspicious of these listings.
Despite his doubts, Dr. Johnson, instigated an informal census from the respective rangers. The results are interesting. In the last five years Brown-headed Parrots have not been seen in Mkuzi, apart from six birds which were seen for a few days last year 0999). In fact, I spoke to a landowner who lives adjacent to
Mkuzi last week. He reported that although his land includes perfect Brown-headed Parrot habitat, including Sycamore Figs, he has never seen the species in the 10 years he has occupied the land.
A couple of birds were seen at Itala, two years ago but this was the first time the species had ever been seen by the present ranger and they haven't been seen since.
No information was forthcoming for Tembe but in late February, I received an excited E-mail from Ndumo saying that two birds had flown over the northern boundary.
So to sum up, some 10 individuals have been seen in a total of 90,000 hectares of game reserves over the last few years. For reasons that I will explore later, it is extremely unlikely that any individuals occur outside the game reserves.
The situation is much the same in Northern Province and Mpumulanga.
In the south of Mpumulanga, the South African boundary extends eastwards to the Mozambique border. No Brown-headed Parrots seem to occur in this region.
The Kruger National Park (KNP), extends over nearly 2 million hectares and forms a 370 km. long protected area between the two provinces and Mozambique. Only a few reports have reached me of the species being seen on the South African side of the KNP boundary. In the two years that I worked in the KNP I estimate that no more than 2500 Brown-headed Parrots inhabit this region. To put this into some sort of perspective, there are around 2,500 individuals of this "common" species in the wild in South Africa, with by far the vast majority of them in KNP. The same park supports nearly 10,000 of the "endangered" African Elephant and over 2,000 "endangered" White Rhino.