The yellow-fronted parrot (Poicephalus flavifrons) is a parrot endemic to the Ethiopian Highlands. It is a mostly green with a yellow head. Relatively little is known about this bird.
Description
The yellow-fronted parrot is about long and is mostly green with the upper parts being a darker green, the tail being olive-brown, and the legs a dark grey-brown. The face is orange-yellow. When two subspecies are recognized, the nominate is believed to have yellow to its head and face, while in P. f. aurantiiceps some of the yellow is replaced with orange. The upper beak is brownish-grey and the lower beak is bone coloured, the irises are orange-red, and bare eye-rings and cere are grey. Male and female adults have identical external appearance. Juveniles are duller than the adults with a mostly grey head, brown irises, and only a small amount of yellow on the front of the face including on the forehead.
Range This parrot is endemic to the Ethiopian Highlands at about above sea level. When two subspecies are recognized, the nominate is found in the highlands around Lake Tana and also in central Ethiopia, and P. f. aurantiiceps is found in southwestern Ethiopia. It lives in forest habitats, unlike most other Poicephalus parrots apart from the Cape and red-fronted parrot superspecies complex.
Aviculture The yellow-fronted parrot was unknown in aviculture until recently. The first thoroughly documented and published successful captive breeding of the Yellow-fronted Parrot (Poicephalus flavifrons) was achieved in 2012 by Daniel Jedlička, a Czech aviculturist. The breeding and subsequent observations were documented in specialist avicultural journals in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia, France and the Czech Republic. These publications describe reproductive behaviour, nesting, egg incubation, parental care, chick development and long-term observations in captivity. An editorial note published in the Czech journal Exota in 2024 states that the 2012 breeding represented the first successful captive breeding of the species under human care.
Taxonomy German naturalist Eduard Rüppell first described the yellow-fronted parrot in 1845. Its species name is derived from the Latin words flavus "yellow", and frons "forehead". It is also known as the yellow-faced parrot. Most recent authorities treat it as monotypic,Dickinson, E. C. (editor) (2003). The Howard and Moore Complete Checklist of the Birds of the World. 3rd edition. Clements, J. F. (2007). The Clements Checklist of the Birds of the World. 6th edition. but some recognized two slightly different subspecies, P. f. flavifrons and P. f. aurantiiceps.Forshaw (2006). plate 67.
References
JEDLIČKA, Daniel. Yellow-fronted Parrot – The Breeding Experience. Parrot Society UK Magazine, 2014, Vol. 48, No. 7, s. 12–16.
JEDLIČKA, Daniel. Die Zucht des Gelbstirn-Mohrenkopfpapageis (Poicephalus flavifrons). Papageien, 2014, No. 9.
JEDLICKA, Daniel, HUBERS, Jos. Unieke kweek met de geelmaskerpapagaai. Parkieten Sociëteit, 2014, No. 8
JEDLIČKA, Daniel. The Yellow-fronted Parrot. Australian Birdkeeper, 2019, Vol. 32, Issue 8.
JEDLIČKA, Daniel. Le Perroquet à face jaune (Poicephalus flavifrons), première expérience d’élevage et observations à long terme. Les Oiseaux du Monde, 2024, No. 417.
JEDLIČKA, Daniel. Chov a odchov papouška žlutočelého. Exota, 2024,No. 5
Cited texts