(Pionites l. leucogaster)
White-bellied Caïques are small parrots that are 23cm long and weigh between 150 and 175 grams. They live in northern Brazil, southeast of the Amazon in the tropical forests near bodies of water. Depending on the season, they can be seen either in couples or in colonies, noisy and busy seeking food in trees where they usually spend the day.
The term "White-Bellied" may be somewhat misleading since all Caiques have a white belly. What distiguishes this species from it's close cousin, the Black-Headed Caique, is the color of it's head which is peach or apricot coloured. The back, wings and tail, are fluorescent green contrasting with the white belly. The sides and neck are yellow and the eyes are red. In the sunlight, one can see the bright blue feather tips on the tail and wings. It looks quite stocky with a short tail and big beige feet.
It is said that the Caique has the same character as the Lori, meaning it is particularly playful, always ready to do tricks and to roll over on its back to have its belly rubbed. It is untiring, energetic and bold. Indeed, the Caique is fearless and becomes master of it's environment and of it's caretaker in little time: the bird is the master of the game.
A tamed caique stays tamed forever: aviary specialists (Low, Arndt, Blanchard...) claim that it prefers contact with humans rather than with other parrots. The Caique is not a good talker but it's other qualities greatly compensate this. That being said, as most psittacides, it can learn it's name and other common words. It is not a particularly noisy bird: it's scream ressembles that of a squeeky door. This is a bird that needs to be kept busy which means that it requires a good number of branches to chew on, natural rope and leather toys to chew and little objects it can hold in it's feet.
Mini Movie
