Seeing as I've been researching everything about my parrot for several weeks now (it's a hobby, really) I thought it might be helpful to share info and resources for this lovely member of the Poicephalus family.
Like many bird species, red-bellies have been known by various common names as well as their scientific one, P. rufiventris rufiventris, which actually means, "red/reddish/ruddy-bellied" in Latin. So far I've encountered the following:
1) Red-Bellied Parrot/Red Belly Parrot/Red Belly <--Pet trade names
2) African Orange Bellied Parrot <-- Used amongst birding and ornithological circles
3) Red-Breasted Parrot/Salmon-Breasted Parrot/Somaliland Orange-bellied Parrot/Abyssinian Parrot <-- Found mostly in articles and books before 1930
Incidentally, the reason birders place "African" in front is because there is another, completely unrelated "Orange Bellied" species in Australia: Neophema chrysogaster. Sadly, these birds are in dire threat; as of the 2012/13 breeding season there were only 44 reported to be left in the wild.
I've been trying to find out the estimated number of wild Red-bellies, but so far it seems that no one has actually been able to do a comprehensive count, as they are a bit spread out across East Africa: Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and the Republic of Tanzania. In 2007 they made it onto IUCN's "Critically Endangered" Red List, but in 2009 they were taken off, the justification being that Red-Bellies hadn't reached the required range size criterion threshold of less than 20,000 square kilometers (Bird Life International, 2009). Hopefully their numbers are on the rebound since there isn't as much interest in exporting as there once was...
I've got a bit more info that I'd like to post as time allows, but feel free to add anything that is specific to this species! The more, the merrier, I always say.
--Weka
