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Yellow-crowned Amazon | Amazona ochrocephala
Geelvoorhoofdamazone | Amazona coroniamarilla
The Yellow-crowned Amazon is a medium-sized green parrot with a yellow patch on the forehead and crown, found from Panama far into South America. In the guide area only the Panamanian form A. o. panamensis occurs. The related Yellow-headed and Yellow-naped Amazons of Mexico and northern Central America are treated as separate species.
Voice
A loud, rolling kurr-ow or bow-wow, mainly in flight; perched birds also give a range of whistles, grating and barking notes.
Recording: Jacob Wijpkema — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
33–38 cm. Mostly bright green with a short, square tail. The forehead and fore-crown are yellow; the rest of the head is green. The bend of the wing is red, and in flight the wing shows a red speculum on the secondaries and dark blue tips to the flight feathers. The bill is dark horn with a pale or reddish base to the upper mandible, the eye-ring white. The sexes are alike. Flight is on fast, shallow beats below body level, usually in pairs or small groups.
Confusion species
Yellow-headed Amazon Amazona oratrix has an all-yellow head and Yellow-naped Amazon Amazona auropalliata a yellow patch on the nape; neither occurs in Panama. Mealy Amazon Amazona farinosa is larger, has no yellow on the head but a broad white eye-ring and a powdery green back. Red-lored Amazon Amazona autumnalis has a red forehead and yellow cheeks.
Habitat
Semi-open lowlands with scattered trees, dry forest and forest edges on the Pacific side, gallery forest, mangroves, savanna with trees and farmland; also in parks and gardens of Panama City. Mostly below 800 m. It eats seeds, fruit and blossom in the canopy. It nests in a tree cavity or a hole in a palm.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
In the guide area only in Panama: mainly in the Pacific lowlands, from Chiriquí across the Azuero Peninsula and Coclé to the Panama City area and Darién, and on the Pearl Islands; scarce on the Caribbean side. Records in Costa Rica and Mexico probably refer to escaped cage birds. Outside the guide area in northern South America, south to Amazonian Peru, Bolivia and Brazil; released or escaped birds live in Florida and on the Cayman Islands, among other places.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Groups fly between roost trees and feeding areas after sunrise and towards sunset; in the former Canal Zone around Panama City and in the Pacific lowlands of Coclé they are then regularly seen.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Locally declined through nest poaching for the cage-bird trade and forest clearance.
Scientific name
Amazona ochrocephala | (Gmelin, 1788)
Gmelin described the species in 1788 as Psittacus ochrocephalus; 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. ochrocephala is Greek, from ōkhros 'ochre-yellow' and kephalē 'head', after the yellow crown. The specimen the first description was based on came from Venezuela (restricted from 'South America').