African Orange-bellied Parrot

Poicephalus rufiventris

Other Pics: Female Orange-bellied Parrot

Other Names

  Orange-bellied Parrot, Red-bellied Parrot   Perroquet à ventre rouge   Rotbauch-Mohrenkopf   Lorito Ventrirrojo   Rödbukspapegoja   Roodbuikpapegaai   Pappagallo ventre rosso

World: Africa in Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and northern Tanzania.

Kenya: Widespread in the eastern half of Kenya, except the coastal lowlands.

The most common of the 5 parrots found in Kenya and the easiest to spot. It's not particularly shy and is easy to find, not least because it's fairly noisy with distinctive and very unmusical screech. It prefers low dry country and you should be able to see it on a visit to either Tsavo or Samburu. In Samburu they're fairly common around the Doum Palms and "Sausage Trees" along the banks of the Uaso Nyiro usually in pairs. Only the male has the orange belly which the name comes from, the female is green underneath. Quite distinctive and not easy to confuse with anything else; it also helps that their range doesn't really overlap with any of the other Kenyan parrots.