The black- headed caique is a kind of parrot. It is 23cm long . It is a colorful bird. It has a black head, green body and white chest. Its chin and cheeks are yellow. The legs are bluish grey. The eyes are at the side of the head.

    The black-headed caique may be found in Guianas, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, and some of Peru. It lives in the forest and Savannah countries of the tropical zone. The black-headed caique stays up in the trees most of the day. Caiques love playing with twigs in the forest.

    The black-headed caique’s diet is made up of fruit, berries (green or purple- it doesn’t matter) and seeds(any kind will do, mostly from trees). They often fight over the seeds that they find on the ground. Sometimes they hurt each other. Caiques also enjoy chewing fresh green branches and leaves. They like to take a lot of baths. Some caiques will even bathe in wet green leafy branches.

    The black-headed caique lays 2-4 eggs. It takes approximately 27 days for the eggs to hatch. While the female sits on the eggs, the male feeds her.. Babies are blind when they are born. They are helpless and must stay in the nest for 62 days.For baby pictures go to
http://www.avesint.com/Black-Headed%20Caique.html.

    Black headed caiques are noisy parrots. They make penetrating shrill calls, especially in the early morning and the evening.  When danger comes near to a flock of caiques, the birds get silent and then all at once take off with a loud and confusing mass of color and noise. When they do that, the predator gets scared.

        Caiques are very playful and enjoy spending lots of time either playing with their toys or playing with another caique. Caiques should be given plenty of exercise time, and need large cages with lots of room to play and exercise.

For more information and a picture go to:
http://www.shadypines.com
http://www.arndt-verlag.com/projekt/parse.cgi?Desc=E294.htm&Pic=294_1.JPG
http://sites.netscape.net/zecocarvalho/Psit/Pi-melanocephala.htm
http://www.avesint.com/Black-Headed%20Caique.html
http://www.pet-net.net/pet_birds/caiques.htm
http://www.wolfpawn.net/autumn_owl/july/caique.html
http://www.boaf.com/article_4.htm
                                                                                                   by Mildred
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