Lilac-tailed Parrotlet

The violet-tailed parrotlet is about 14 cm (5.5 in) long and weighs 52 to 72 g (1.8 to 2.5 oz). Its head is mostly yellow with green ear coverts. The sides of its neck are green and its nape has a dusky scaled appearance. Its back and wings are black and its greater wing coverts are yellowish green with green-blue edges and a red carpal bar. Its tail is purplish rose with a black band near the end. Its throat is green, its breast pale blue, its belly green, and its underwing coverts blue.

The violet-tailed parrotlet is found discontinuously across northern South America. The regions include Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, two coastal areas in Venezuela, the island of Trinidad, and a broad swath from eastern Venezuela through Guyana and Suriname and across much of French Guiana. In most of its range it inhabits lowland deciduous forest but in Colombia and the Venezuelan Coastal Range it occurs in cloudforest between 700 and 1,700 m (2,300 and 5,600 ft). It uses both pristine and disturbed primary and secondary forest.

The violet-tailed parrotlet does most of its foraging in the morning. Its diet includes flowers, nectar, buds, berries, seeds, and fruits.