Family Parrots (Psittacidae)
Least Concern
Yellow-crowned Amazon (Amazona ochrocephala)
Taxonomy
French: Amazone à front jaune German: Gelbscheitelamazone Spanish: Amazona real
Other common names:
Yellow-crowned Parrot
Taxonomy:
Psittacus ochrocephalus
J. F. Gmelin
, 1788,Venezuela
.
Subspecies and Distribution
A. o. panamensis
(Cabanis, 1874) – W Panama to NW & C Colombia.
A. o. ochrocephala
(J. F. Gmelin, 1788) – E Colombia E through Venezuela, Trinidad (birds of uncertain origin)#R and the Guianas to NC Brazil (Pará).
A. o. xantholaema
Berlepsch, 1913 – Marajó I, in Amazon Delta (N Brazil).
A. o. nattereri
(Finsch, 1866) – SE Colombia S through E Ecuador and E Peru to N Bolivia and W Brazil (to Mato Grosso).
Introduced (nominate race) to Puerto Rico#R.
Descriptive notes
35–38 cm; 340–535 g. Green, more yellowish below; forehead and mid-crown yellow, often with some yellow round eye; cheeks and ear-coverts bright green; hindcrown... read more
Voice
A variety of rolling barks and screeches, most rather low-pitched and nasal-sounding, e.g. a... read more
Habitat
Tropical deciduous woodland, tall thorn scrub, humid gallery forest, seasonally flooded (v... read more
Food and feeding
Fruit and/or seeds and flowers of trees such as Pithecellobium, Spathodea, Acacia, Curatella americana... read more
Breeding
Season Feb–May in NE Venezuela; Dec–Jan in W Panama and Colombia; Jan in Surinam; young reportedly fledge in Oct in SE Peru.... read more
Movements
Year-round resident, probably throughout range; however, some birds appear to wander in response to... read more
Status and conservation
Not globally threatened. CITES II. Locally quite common in Panama and local in Colombia, although numbers apparently much reduced in first-named country, with trapping... read more
Treatment as conspecific with A. oratrix and A. auropalliata has been common in recent decades (e.g. in HBW), but becoming increasingly unpopular with (among others) trade-control agencies; separation into three species plausible, but oratrix and auropalliata have problems of diagnosis at the junction of their Caribbean ranges, while the morphological conformity of present species is undermined by extreme E race xantholaema, which has yellow distributed on head in pattern resembling A. oratrix belizensis. Present species otherwise diagnosed by yellow forehead to mid-crown, bicoloured grey/pinkish bill, whitish eyering and moderately strong red shoulder patch; scores for differences from oratrix and auropalliata are given under those species (subspecies xantholaema, being geographically most distant taxon from subspecies grouped under A. oratrix, has to be set aside in these scores; needs study). Four subspecies currently recognized.