What the hills call it
Tota
/ to·taa /तोता
Rose-ringed Parakeet — Bright green and screeching across the fields.
Field notes
- Order
- Psittaciformes
- Family
- Psittaculidae · Old World parrots
- Genus
- Psittacula
- Length
- 40–42 cm
- Weight
- 95–143 g
- At Kunja
- Resident — here all year round
- Conservation
- Least Concern
How to know it
A slim bright-green parakeet with a long tail and a big red bill; the male has a black-and-rose neck-ring. Loud, fast and unmistakable.
What it eats
Fruit, seeds, grain, buds and blossom — and a notorious raider of orchards and ripening crops.
Where & when to spot it
Screeching across the fields and trees in fast flocks, especially in the warmer country; roosts noisily in big trees.
Nesting & mating
In a tree-hole, often an old barbet or woodpecker hole; three to four white eggs.
In the lens
Rose-ringed Parakeet, photographed at Kunja
Photographs by Manohar Negi · mnegi.com — tap any photo to view it full
More to spot
PasseridaeHouse Sparrow
Passer domesticus
Kunja
MuscicapidaeBlue Whistling Thrush
Myophonus caeruleus
Kunja
SturnidaeCommon Myna
Acridotheres tristis
Kunja
HirundinidaeRed-rumped Swallow
Cecropis daurica
Kunja
PycnonotidaeHimalayan Bulbul
Pycnonotus leucogenys
Kunja
MegalaimidaeGreat Barbet
Psilopogon virens
Kunja