We encountered this rare Cuban endemic only once. This photo is part of a flock comprising about 25 birds near the reserve entrance. The amount of red flecking on their heads varies with males having the most and immatures having the least. Only a few birds in this flock showed strong red flecking but all showed bright red on their wing linings in flight. While foraging the flock was silent making them difficult to detect. This Cuban endemic was formerly common but habitat loss and trapping for the cage-bird trade eliminated the species from the Isle of Pines (1900) and reduced its population on the main island to a status of "vulnerable."
This species was formerly included with other long-tailed New World parakeets in the genus Aratinga, but a 2013 study by Remsen et al. found this genus to be paraphyletic [Zootaxa 3641 (3): 296-300]. They recommended placing this species along with others in Psittacara and the AOU accepted this recommendation in 2014.
Reference:
Cañizares Morera, Maikel and Eduardo E. Iñigo-Elias. 2013. Cuban Parakeet (Psittacara euops), Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Ithaca: Cornell Lab of Ornithology; retrieved from Neotropical Birds Online.
Canon PowerShot SX50 HS