The blue-crowned parakeet is a medium-sized bird that measures around 14.5 in in length and weighs between 140 and 190 g. While they are born with red coloring around their head, blue-crowns are primarily green in color. They have dull blue coloring on their forehead, crown, cheeks, and ears in the nominate subspecies, but other subspecies have less blue. These parakeets have a ring of white featherless skin around each eye, which is bright orange-yellow in the wild. The breast feathers may have a hint of blue, but they are usually green to yellow-green. When their wings are closed, they match the color of their body, but when extended, they display blue-brown coloring that turns chestnut on the outer flight feathers. The tail feathers are green on top and maroon to red-brown on the underside, shimmering to bright orange and scarlet under full-spectrum light. Their legs are pink-brown with grey-brown claws. The upper mandible is horn-colored and tapers to a needle-sharp, grey-black tip. In some subspecies, the lower mandible is horn-colored in juveniles and fades to grey-black by the bird’s second year, while in other subspecies, the lower mandible remains horn-colored throughout adulthood.
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