Black-billed Amazon (Amazona agilis) — Vorstman's Guide to the Birds of the Caribbean

Voice

In flight bugling, ringing calls; when perched growls and rumbling sounds. The calls sound sharper and more screeching than those of Yellow-billed Amazon.

Listen: CallXC308431

Recording: Ross Gallardy — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto

Identification

26–29 cm, compact, with a short tail. Almost entirely green, with a dark ear patch and a white eye-ring. In males the primary coverts are red, showing in flight as a red patch on the forewing; in females they are wholly or partly green. The flight feathers are tipped blue and the outer tail feathers are red at the base. The bill is very dark grey, almost black.

Confusion species

Yellow-billed Amazon Amazona collaria is slightly larger, with a yellow bill, white forehead, blue forecrown and pink throat; in flight it shows blue primaries and no red on the forewing. Female Black-billed Amazons without red are identified by the dark bill and plain green head. Olive-throated Parakeet Eupsittula nana is smaller, with a long pointed tail and a brownish throat.

Habitat

Mainly wet limestone forest on karst, also moist mid-elevation forest and forest edge with plantations. It eats fruit, seeds and nuts, and also takes cultivated fruit such as mango and papaya. Nests in cavities in tall trees.

Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.

Range and movements

Endemic to Jamaica. Its stronghold is Cockpit Country and the Mount Diablo area in the centre of the island; elsewhere very local and scarce. It does not occur outside Jamaica.

Resident
dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

Density map from the occurrence records of GBIF (2006-10-01 – 2026-09-30), counted per 0.18° grid cell and per month and divided by all bird records in that same cell — so the number of birdwatchers does not shape the picture. Colour depth follows that share and fades out gradually, so the map does not follow national borders. Country outlines: Natural Earth (public domain).

How and when to look

Best early in the morning from an open spot overlooking the forest in Cockpit Country, for example on the edges of the area near Windsor, when pairs and small groups fly over the forest. Flying birds are told from Yellow-billed Amazon by the male's red forewing and the dark bill; the two often fly together.

Conservation status

Endangered. Once as numerous as Yellow-billed Amazon, it has declined steeply through deforestation, fragmentation of the forest by hurricanes, and trapping for food and the cage-bird trade. Escaped non-native amazons, such as Yellow-naped Amazon A. auropalliata, pose an additional risk of hybridisation and disease.

Scientific name

Amazona agilis | (Linnaeus, 1758)

Linnaeus described the species in 1758 as Psittacus agilis; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Amazona was introduced in 1830 by Lesson. Amazona comes from 'Amazone', the French name Buffon gave to various tropical American parrots because they came from the Amazon region. agilis is Latin for 'nimble, agile'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Jamaica.