Red-lored Amazon

En bref

  • Scientific Name: Amazona autumnalis
  • Spanish Name: Amazona frentirroja
  • Famille : Psittacidae
  • Known Nicknames: Red-lored Parrot, Yellow-cheeked Amazon, Red-lored Amazon Parrot
  • Average Length: 32–36 cm / 13–14 in
  • Average Weight: 310–480 g / 11–17 oz
  • Wingspan: 38–43 cm / 15–17 in
  • Key Feature: Bright red patch on the forehead (lore) and yellow cheeks
  • Régime alimentaire principal : Principalement frugivore et granivore
  • Range: Eastern Mexico to western Ecuador and central Brazil
  • Habitat: Tropical lowland forests, gallery forests, and semi-open woodlands
  • Social Structure: Highly Social (flocks of 10–50, sometimes up to hundreds)
  • Nesting/Breeding: Tree cavities (often in dead palms or large hardwoods)
  • Statut de conservation : Préoccupation mineure (LC)
  • Évolution démographique : En baisse

The Red-lored Amazon (*Amazona autumnalis*) is a vibrant, medium-sized parrot native to humid tropical forests from eastern Mexico down through Central America to northern South America. Its most distinctive feature is the bright red patch on its forehead and lores (the area between the eyes and beak), which contrasts sharply with its predominantly green plumage. The cheeks are a vivid yellow, and the crown often displays a shimmering blue hue, while the wing tips flash red and blue in flight. Known for their playful, social nature and excellent vocal mimicry, these parrots possess a strong, hooked grey-black beak perfect for cracking nuts and seeds. A special feature is their ability to adapt to both dense rainforests and human-modified landscapes, though they remain highly vulnerable to habitat loss and the illegal pet trade due to their charismatic personality.

Faits amusants

The Red-lored Amazon has a quirky habit of using its feet like hands to bring food to its beak, often holding a piece of fruit while hanging upside down like a tiny acrobat. They are also known for their remarkable vocal mimicry, sometimes learning to perfectly imitate household sounds like a microwave beep or a ringing phone, which they may repeat endlessly to get attention. A unique adaptation is their ability to eat toxic fruits that would sicken other animals—they consume clay from riverbanks to neutralize the toxins, a behavior called geophagy.

Habitats et répartition

The Red-lored Amazon primarily inhabits lowland tropical and subtropical forests, including humid evergreen forests, gallery forests, and forest edges. It is also found in partially cleared areas, plantations, and mangroves, often near rivers or coastal regions. Its geographical range extends from eastern Mexico through Central America (Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama) into northern South America, including Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and the Amazon basin of Brazil. This parrot avoids high-altitude montane forests and is most common in lowlands below 1,000 meters, though it can occasionally be found up to 1,500 meters in suitable habitats.

Comportements & Reproduction

Red-lored Amazons are highly social, typically forming monogamous pair bonds that last for multiple breeding seasons, if not for life. Their courtship involves mutual feeding, allopreening, and synchronized head-bobbing displays. In the wild, they nest in tree cavities, often reusing the same site annually, which helps protect the eggs and chicks from predators. Females lay 3 to 4 white eggs, incubating them for about 26 days while the male brings food. A unique reproductive strategy is their use of communal roosts outside the breeding season, which strengthens social bonds and may help young birds learn nesting sites from experienced adults. Both parents fiercely defend the nest and share feeding duties after chicks hatch, with fledging occurring around 8 to 10 weeks old.

Alimentation

The Red-lored Amazon is primarily a frugivore, with its diet in the wild consisting largely of a wide variety of fruits, berries, and seeds from tropical trees and palms. An interesting fact is that they are known to consume unripe or semi-ripe fruits, which are often toxic to other animals, and they also feed on specific clay licks (colloquially called "clay licks") to neutralize these ingested toxins. Additionally, they will occasionally eat blossoms, nectar, and young leaf buds, and their strong, hooked beak is perfectly adapted for cracking hard nuts and seeds, such as those from the almendro tree.

Couleurs

The Red-lored Amazon is predominantly bright green with a distinctive red patch on its forehead and lores, a blue crown, and yellow cheeks. Its flight feathers show red and blue tips, while the tail has a yellow-green tip. It lacks specific camouflage adaptations, relying instead on its green body to blend into rainforest foliage, with the red and blue facial markings serving as species recognition signals rather than concealment.