Orange-winged Parrot (Amazona amazonica)

Orange-winged Parrot

Description

The orange-winged amazon (Amazona amazonica), also known locally as orange-winged parrot and loro guaro, is a large amazon parrot. It is a resident breeding bird in tropical South America, from Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago south to Peru, Bolivia and central Brazil. Its habitat is forest and semi-open country. Although common, it is persecuted as an agricultural pest and by capture for the pet trade (over 66,000 captured from 1981 to 1985). It is also hunted as a food source. Introduced breeding populations have been reported in Puerto Rico and Tenerife in the Canary Islands. The orange-winged amazon is a mainly green parrot about 33 cm (13 in) long and weighing about 340 g. It has blue and yellow feathers on its head which varies in extent between individuals. The upper mandible is partly horn colored (gray) and partly dark-gray. It has orange feathers in the wings and tail, which can be seen when in flight. The male and female are identical in external appearance.

Distribution And Habitat

The Orange-winged Parrot is native to central and northern South America, and to Trinidad and Tobago (Raffaele and others 1998). It is introduced on Martinique and Puerto Rico, in the latter being uncommon in the metropolitan area of San Juan where it occurs in small numbers (Raffaele and others 1998). More recently, it has been described as a self-sustaining population which has expanded is range from sites of original introduction (Falcón and Tremblay 2018). It usually inhabits lowland second-growth forests (Raffaele and others 1998). The atlas fieldwork yielded a total of nine records within seven hexagons or 1.5 percent of the 479 total hexagons (see map). Of the seven hexagons where this species was found, breeding met the atlas definition of confirmed in 14 percent (one) of the hexagons, probable in 43 percent (three), and possible in 29 percent (two), while the species was observed in an additional hexagon (14 percent) but without evidence of breeding (see map). Orange-winged Parrot distribution. The map shows the highest breeding code by hexagon and overlaying the ecological life zones in Puerto Rico. Note: percentages may not total 100 due to rounding. 199Orange-winged Parrot/Cotorra Alianaranjada

Breeding Habits

The Orange-winged Parrots nest has not yet been found on Puerto Rico (Raffaele and others 1998). Atlas results suggest that this species breeds from December to March and also during June, July, and October (see chart). Results (see table and map) show that this species breeds primarily in the lowlands mostly within the subtropical moist forest life zone (83 percent of the hexagons) but also in the subtropical dry forest life zone (17 percent of the hexagons).

Conservation

The current global population trend of the Orange-winged Parrot has not been quantified or assessed, but the species is described as fairly common (Stotz and others 1996). Nevertheless, the population is suspected to be in decline due to ongoing habitat destruction and hunting. It is currently listed as a species of least concern by the IUCN (BirdLife International 2018). Sighting trends in Puerto Rico indicate that the introduced population is stable (Falcón and Tremblay 2018). Locally, this species is not listed in any of the threatened categories of PRDNER and USFWS. In Puerto Rico, the Orange-winged Parrot has a protected habitat in land of about 4 percent or 6 km2 of the total area covered by the hexagons where evidence of breeding was found for this species (143 km2).