White-fronted Amazon
Also known as:
White-fronted Parrot, Spectacled Amazon or Parrot, White-browed Amazon or Parrot
Also known as:
White-fronted Parrot, Spectacled Amazon or Parrot, White-browed Amazon or Parrot
DID YOU KNOW?
The White-fronted Amazon is the smallest of the Amazon parrots.
Size:
26 cm (10 in)
Weight:
188-242 g (6.5-8.5 oz)
Subspecies including nominate:
three: A.a. albifrons, A.a. saltuensis, A.a. nana
Colour Adult:
A.a. albifrons: Male-body green, the feathers edged dusty black; red lores and red area around eyes; white forehead and forecrown; carpal edge and primary coverts red; tail green with red at base. Beak yellow. Eye ring pale grey, eye yellow. Female-carpal edge and primary coverts green.
A.a. saltuensis: Both adults body green washed with blue; blue of crown reaching to nape.
A.a. nana: Both adults as in albifrons but smaller in size.
Colour Juvenile:
As in adult female but red of lores not extending to area around eyes; white forehead and forecrown tinted with yellow. Eye pale grey.
Call:
Calls loud and varied. Include squealing, barking, loud harsh notes, loud harsh trilling and short sharp calls.
More Information:
Content Sources:
CITES
BirdLife International
Cornell Lab of Ornithology/Birds of the World
A Guide to Parrots of the World, Juniper and Parr, 1998
Parrots of the World, Forshaw and Cooper, 1977. 2010 edition
Parrots of the World, Forshaw, 2006.
Parrots in Aviculture, Low, 1992.
Psittacine Aviculture, Schubot, Clubb and Clubb, 1992.
Captive Status:
Fairly common.
Longevity:
50+ yrs
Housing:
Aviary or suspended enclosure, minimum length 3 m (9.8 ft).
Diet:
Fruit such as: apple, pear, orange, cactus fruits, bananas, pomegranate, etc, forming about 30 percent of the diet; vegetables such as: carrot, celery, zucchini, green beans and peas in the pod, fresh corn; green leaves such as: Swiss chard, lettuce, sowthistle, dandelion, chickweed; spray millet; small seed mix: millet, safflower, canary and small amounts of buckwheat and oats; limited dry, soaked or sprouted sunflower seeds; cooked pulses and beans, and complete kibble.
Enrichment:
Avid chewer, so provide lots of bird-safe wood toys and branches (fir, pine, elder, willow), puzzle/foraging toys, vegetable tanned leather toys, ladders, swings. Bathing, socialization.
Nest Box Size:
12″ x 12″ x 24″ (30.5 cm x 30.5 cm x 61 cm) vertical box
Clutch Size:
3 or 4
Fledging Age:
7-8 weeks
Hatch Weight:
—
Peak Weight:
—
Weaning Weight:
—
World Population:
500,000-5,000,000, increasing.
IUCN Red List Status:
Least Concern
CITES Listing:
Appendix II
Threat Summary:
Birds are taken for the wild bird trade and hunted for food. Decline may have occurred in Yucatan due to persecution of parrots feeding on cultivated fruit after loss of wild food to effects of Hurricane Gilbert.
Range:
A.a. albifrons: Pacific slope of W Mexico, south from Nayarit to SW Guatemala.
A.a. saltuensis: NW Mexico, in S Sonora, Sinaloa, and W Durango.
A.a. nana: S Mexico, in SE Veracruz, south to NW Costa Rica.
Habitat:
Found in a variety of wooded areas and open country with trees such as moist, seasonal semi-evergreen and deciduous forest, pine woodlands, gallery forest, ranchland with stands of open woodland, savanna and arid tropical scrub with cacti. Up to 1850 m (6068 ft).
Wild Diet:
Takes Inga and other legumes; Croton, Terminalia, plus blossoms, berries, Ficus fruits, and cacti such as Pachycereus and Lemaireocereus; also cultivated crops such as mango and maize.
Ecology and Behaviour:
Birds vocal and excited while feeding. In pairs when breeding but sociable, occurring mostly in small flocks. Some communal roosts are reported to contain several thousand birds.
Clutch and Egg Size:
3 or 4 rounded eggs, 30.0 x 22.5 mm (1.2 x 0.9 in).
Breeding Season:
January-July, depending on locality; nests are in abandoned woodpecker and other cavities.
