Gray-cheeked Parakeet

The grey-cheeked parakeet is 19 to 20.5 cm (7.5 to 8.1 in) long and weighs between 60 and 68 g (2.1 and 2.4 oz). Adults are mostly green that is paler and yellower on the underparts. They have a pale blue crown, pale ashy gray cheeks and sides of the neck, and a whitish eye ring and bill. Their primary coverts are deep blue and their underwing coverts orange to orange-red. Immature birds have green instead of blue crowns.

The grey-cheeked parakeet is found from western Ecuador's Manabí Province south into extreme northwestern Peru as far as the northern part of the Department of Piura. It inhabits a variety of landscapes including both deciduous and evergreen forests and more open woodlands, and also scrublands and cultivated areas. In elevation in ranges only as high as 300 m (1,000 ft) in the northern part of its range but up to 1,550 m (5,100 ft) in the south.

The grey-cheeked parakeet's diet includes flowers, seeds, and fruits of a variety of plants and it is suspected to feed on cultivated bananas as well.

Even in its native home, the grey-cheeked parakeet is widely kept as a pet. With patience, these birds may be taught to mimic human sounds, albeit without the clarity of larger parrots.