The Plum-headed Parakeet is notable for the male’s reddish-purple head and the female’s blue-grey head. It lives in South Asian woodland and nearby open or cultivated areas.
Males have a greenish body, a red head washed with blue-purple, a black chin stripe, and a blue-green collar. Females have a blue-grey head and a yellow collar in place of the male’s black markings.
The first high-quality complete mitochondrial genome reported for the Plum-headed Parakeet was 16,814 base pairs long. It includes 37 genes and a control region; 38.86% of the sequence was validated through Sanger sequencing.
The study compared its genome with other Psittacula mitogenomes and found the species closest to P. roseata in its divergence analysis. The authors note that the sequence can support forensic identification of species in illegal bird trade.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
The authors note that the mitochondrial sequence may support species identification in wildlife trade investigations.