Timneh African Grey

The Timneh parrot was formally described in 1844 by the British zoologist and collector Louis Fraser. He coined the binomial name Psittacus timneh and specified the type locality as "Timneh country, Sierra Leone". The Temne are an ethnic group that are predominantly found in the Northern Province of Sierra Leone. The Timneh parrot was formerly classified as a subspecies of the grey parrot but is now treated as a separate species based on the results of a genetic and morphological study published in 2007. Two subspecies are recognised: * P. t. timneh Fraser, 1844 – south Guinea to Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali and west Ivory Coast * Príncipe grey parrot (P. t. princeps) Alexander, 1909 – Príncipe, an island off the west coast of Africa The Clements Checklist classifies the Príncipe grey parrot as a subspecies of the grey parrot instead.

The Timneh parrot is endemic to the western parts of the moist Upper Guinean forests and bordering savannas of West Africa from Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and southern Mali eastwards to at least 70 km east of the Bandama River in Ivory Coast. There is no natural range overlap with the grey parrot although, as both taxa are common in aviculture, escapes can occur and hybridization between greys and Timnehs has been observed in captivity. The birds typically inhabit dense forest, but are also seen at forest edges and in clearings, in gallery forest along waterways, savanna woodland and mangroves. Though they are sometimes found in cultivated areas and gardens, it is not clear whether these habitats contain self-sustaining populations; the birds may make seasonal movements out of the driest parts of their range in the dry season.

Of a total estimated population of 120,000–259,000 individual birds, the largest populations are in Ivory Coast (54,000–130,000) and Liberia (50,000–100,000). In the other range countries, estimated numbers are Sierra Leone (11,000–18,000), Guinea (5,000–10,000) and Guinea-Bissau (100–1,000), with insignificant numbers in southern Mali. Surveys indicate that the species has disappeared from the forests around Mount Nimba and in Nimba County, Liberia. Along with the closely related Congo grey parrot, it is one of the most popular pet birds in the United States, Europe and the Middle East due to its longevity and ability to mimic human speech. and classified it as Endangered in 2016.