The animal on the cover of Fundamentals of Software Engineering is the red-fan parrot (Deroptyus accipitrinus), a native to South America where it is known by several names such as loro cacique in Spanish, or anacã, papagaio-de-coleira, and vanaquiá in Portugese. This New World bird makes its home up in the canopies and tree holes of the Amazon rainforest, where it feeds on the fruits of the Cecropia tree, aptly known as “snake fingers,” as well as the hard fruits of various palm trees.
As the only member of the genus Deroptyus, the red-fan parrot is distinguished by the deep red feathers that cover its nape. Its name comes from the fact that those feathers will “fan” out when it feels excited or threatened and reveal the brilliant blue that highlights each tip. The head is topped by a white crown and yellow eyes, with brown cheeks that are streaked in white. The parrot’s breast and belly are covered in the same red feathers dipped in blue, in contrast with the layered bright green feathers on its back.
Between December and January, the red-fan parrot will find its lifelong mate and then begin laying 2-4 eggs a year. During the 28 days in which the female is incubating the eggs, the male will provide her with care and support. After about 10 weeks, the young are ready to start fledging in the wild and begin their 40-year life span in the world’s largest tropical rainforest.
While the red-fan parrot’s current conservation status is designated as of Least Concern, many of the animals on O’Reilly covers are endangered; all of them are important to the world.
The cover illustration is by Karen Montgomery, based on a black and white engraving from Lydekker’s Royal Natural History. The cover fonts are Gilroy Semibold and Guardian Sans. The text font is Adobe Minion Pro; the heading font is Adobe Myriad Condensed; and the code font is Dalton Maag’s Ubuntu Mono.