• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note
Poicephalus robustus and P. fuscicollis (HBW and BirdLife International 2017) were previously lumped as P. robustus (del Hoyo and Collar 2014), but have been split following work by Collar and Fishpool (2017) who showed that the form robustus reached species rank under the Tobias criteria on morphological scoring alone, with the difference augmented by voice (7+3 = 10). The newly-defined P. robustus is monotypic, while P. fuscicollis is polytypic, including the races fuscicollis and suahelicus.

Taxonomic source(s)
Collar, N.J.C. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2017. Is the Cape Parrot a species or subspecies, and does it matter to CITES? Bulletin of the African Bird Club 24(2): 156-170.
HBW and BirdLife International. 2017. Taxonomic checklist of the birds of the world. V2.0.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	D1

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2021	Vulnerable	D1
2017	Vulnerable	D1
2016	Not Recognised
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	medium
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	270,000 km2	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	730-1200 mature individuals	good	estimated	2015
Population trend	stable	-	estimated	-
Generation length	12.12 years	-	-	-
Number of subpopulations	3	-	-	-
Percentage of mature individuals in largest subpopulation	1-89%	-	-	-

Population justification: The population has been assessed annually by the Cape Parrot Big Birding Day since 1997. Population numbers prior to 2002 were below 500, but since then the numbers have been higher (average 1,366 ± 245 individuals between 2008 and 2012, with a high count of 1,786 individuals in 2009; Downs et al. 2014), likely a consequence of an increase in survey coverage.

In Downs (2015) the population size was listed as 1,100-1,500 mature individuals. However, since it was stated that it was unknown what proportion of these individuals were adults, this estimate is considered here to relate to total individuals rather than mature individuals. Treating the population estimate of Downs (2015) as an estimate of the total number of individuals would also fit with the estimates presented by Downs et al. (2014) and Downs and Singh (2016). This estimate could be altered to take into account the maximum record of 2009, so that the range is 1,100-1,786 individuals, which would roughly equate to 733-1,190 mature individuals, rounded here to 730-1,200 mature individuals. There are estimated to be 60-80 individuals in the isolated Limpopo subpopulation, 500-600 in the Amatole forests, and 400-500 each in the former Transkei and southern KwaZulu-Natal forests (Downs 2015). The number of individuals in the largest population is therefore thought to be 800-1000, roughly equivalent to 530-667 mature individuals.

Trend justification: Higher numbers reported since 2002 likely reflect better survey coverage, and the population appears to have been stable over at least the 15 years of surveys from 1998-2012 (Downs et al. 2014). The 2016 survey reported a maximum of 1,499 individuals (Downs and Singh 2016) and numbers since 2012 are considered to have remained broadly stable.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
South Africa	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Montane	major	resident
Altitude	1000 - 1400 m	Occasional altitudinal limits

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Intentional use (species is the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Majority (50-90%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Species mortality
Biological resource use	Logging & wood harvesting - Unintentional effects: (subsistence/small scale) [harvest]	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Negligible declines		Low Impact: 4
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation, Ecosystem conversion
Climate change & severe weather	Habitat shifting & alteration	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Future		Whole (>90%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Ecosystem degradation
Invasive and other problematic species, genes & diseases	Viral/prion-induced diseases - Beak and Feather Disease Virus (BFDV)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Unknown		Unknown		Unknown
		Stresses Species mortality

Purpose	Scale
Pets/display animals, horticulture	subsistence, national

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Cape Parrot Poicephalus robustus. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/cape-parrot-poicephalus-robustus on 22/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 22/12/2024.