Facts about this animal
This is a fairly large amazon with a total lenght of 34 cm and a body-weight of around 420g.
The plumage is mostly green, paler below, and with the lower half of the outer tail feathers pale yellow-green. There are usually some yellow feathers on the face, crown and hindneck are pale blue scaled with black, and there is some black scaling on the chest. The outer webs of the primary wing feathers are blue, and there is a red speculum on the wing. Lores and forehead are distinctively red.
The iris is orange, brownish in immature birds, cere and bas of bill yellowish-horn, tip of bill grey, the bare eye-ring is pale yellow, and the legs and feet are dull grey.
Outside the breeding season, red-lored amazons have communal roosts and travel in pairs, groups or large flocks, in which pairs are evident, foraging mostly in the crowns of large trees.
The nest is an unlined hollow in a tall, usually dead tree. The clutch consists usually of 3 to 4 eggs.
Red-lored amazons feed on figs, seeds, leaf buds, and some cultivated fruits such as mangoes or citrus.
Did you know?
that there are four subspecies of the red-lored amazon? The nominata A, a. autumnalis from Mexico and Nicaragua, and the Bay Islands of Honduras, A, a. salvini from Nicaragua down to W Colombia and NW Venezuela, A, a. lilacina from Ecuador, and the ndiademed amazon, A, a. diadema, from NW Brazil.
|Name (Scientific)||Amazona autumnalis|
|Name (English)||Red-lored amazon|
|Name (French)||Amazone diadème|
|Name (Spanish)||Amazona frentirroja|
|Local names||Brasil: Papagaio-diadema
Costa Rica: Lora
|CITES Status||Appendix II|
|CMS Status||Not listed|
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|Range||Central and northern South America: Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela|
|Habitat||Subtropical/topical dry and moist lowland forests, including degraded former forests|
|Wild population||No global figures available, but population believed to be large|
|Zoo population||192 reported to ISIS (2008)|
In the Zoo
How this animal should be transported
For air transport, Container Note 11D of the IATA Live Animals Regulations should be followed.
Find this animal on ZooLex
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Why do zoos keep this animal
Amazons are conspicuous and attractive birds, which are good ambassador species for the conservation of neotropical forests. They have an interesting anatomy and behaviour, are intelligent birds able to mimic human speech and even to associate words with their meanings, and are thus also of educational interest. Zoos may keep amazon parrots also for animal welfare reasons as they may have to take care of confiscated birds, or former pet birds.