The yellow-crowned parrot, or Yellow-crowned Amazon (Amazona ochrocephala) is a species of parrot native to South America, the Amazon basin, and Guianas, Panama, and Trinidad and Tobago. The subspecies are categorized into three groups, which are often treated as separate species: A: yellow-crowned or “ochrocephala” group (1–4), B: yellow-naped or “auropalliata” group (5–7), and C: yellow-headed or “oratrix” group (8–11).
YELLOW-HEADED OR “ORATRIX” GROUP—yellow crown, yellow face, or entirely yellow head; pale yellowish-horn bill, and white eye-ring; screaming kyaa-aa-ah or krra-aah-aa-ow, rolling ahrrr or ahrhrrr, also whoh-oh-ohr and rolling rrohrr.
O. oratrix (Yellow-headed Amazon, 38cm) head and neck yellow; thighs yellow; bend of wing and lesser wing-coverts orange-red intermixed yellow; carpal edge yellow often intermixed orange-red; red wing-speculum; juvenile yellow only one crown to lores.
Range Pacific slope of central Mexico, from Jalisco to central Oaxaca (recent records mostly from southern Jalisco and Michoacán) and Caribbean slope, from eastern Nuevo León and Tamaulipas to Tabasco and northern Chiapas; feral populations in Los Angeles urban area, southern California, U.S.A.
O. tresmariae likes the oratrix, but the paler yellow of the head extends to the fore-neck and upper breast; the underparts are suffused blue. Range Islas Marías, off the coast of Nayarit, western Mexico. o. belizensis (two populations, one dimorphic) yellow restricted to lores, forehead, crown, and around eyes to ear-coverts and upper cheeks, together with (yellow-naped morph) or without (yellow-faced morph) yellow patch on the nape to hindneck; little or no yellow on carpal edge.
Range: central Belize and El Petén; northern Guatemala (yellow-faced morph only); and distinctly northeastern Guatemala to extreme northwestern Honduras (both morphs).
O. hondurensis (variable plumage) differs from belizensis by having yellow restricted to forehead and crown, thus approaching ochrocephala, but with or without the yellow patch on nape to hindneck; carpal edge green. Range Valle de Sula, northwestern Honduras.
Similar species are yellow-headed adults readily identified, but yellow-crowned juveniles can be misidentified.
LOCALITIES La Pesca district, Tamaulipas, northeastern Mexico. Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary, Belize. Punta Sal National Park, Valle de Sula, Honduras.
Related Reading: Alexandra’s Parrot (Polytelis alexandrae)
