Family Parrots (Psittacidae)
Endangered
Yellow-naped Amazon (Amazona auropalliata)
Taxonomy
French: Amazone à nuque d’or German: Gelbnackenamazone Spanish: Amazona nuquigualda
Other common names:
Yellow-naped Parrot
Taxonomy:
Psittacus (amazona) auro-palliatus
Lesson
, 1842,Realejo, Nicaragua
.
Subspecies and Distribution
A. a. caribaea
Lousada, 1989 – Bay Is (Roatán, Barbareta and Guanaja), off N Honduras.
A. a. parvipes
Monroe & T. R. Howell, 1966 – NE Honduras and NE Nicaragua.
A. a. auropalliata
(Lesson, 1842) – S Mexico (SE Oaxaca) S to NW Costa Rica.
Descriptive notes
35–36 cm. Large, mainly green parrot, with bright golden-yellow nape and red speculum on wing, while some birds can show yellow on the usually bluish-green forehead,... read more
Voice
Like other members of A. ochrocephala complex, issues wide variety of squawks,... read more
Habitat
Inhabits semi-arid woodland, arid scrub and savannas (including those of Pinus), gaps in... read more
Food and feeding
Diet reported to include seeds of Cochlospermum, Curatella, figs (Ficus) and ripening Terminalia fruits... read more
Breeding
Comparatively few published data. Season Feb in Oaxaca (SW Mexico) and El Salvador, and Mar on Ruatán I, Honduras. Nests sited in unlined... read more
Movements
None known, other than a single record from Calabash Caye, Belize, in Feb 1999, perhaps due to the... read more
Status and conservation
ENDANGERED. CITES I. Total population has long been crudely estimated at fewer than 50,000 individuals, although there is little to support this figure and it plausibly... read more
Treatment as conspecific with A. oratrix (which see) and A. ochrocephala 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 Caribbean populations in E Guatemala and NW Honduras appear to have hybrid status between present species and A. oratrix. Present species distinguished from other taxa in the ochrocephala complex by green head except for yellow nape (3); blackish-grey bill and nares (3); greyish eyering (1); reduced dull red or no red carpal patch (1). Race caribaea, however, possesses yellow forehead and some populations of parvipes have a small yellow frons (and can be pale-billed), suggesting genetic admixture with populations here attributed to A. oratrix lying to the W. Three subspecies currently recognized.