White-fronted Amazon (Amazona albifrons)

Wild White-fronted Amazon
© Joseph C Boone [CC BY-SA 4.0] via Wikimedia Commons

Photos

View in Gallery

Did You Know?

The White-fronted Amazon is the smallest of all the Amazon parrots.

Academic Research

Related publications: Amazona albifrons

Species Profile

Genus: Amazona | Species: albifrons

Size:

26cm (10 in)

Weight:

188-242g (6.5-8.5 oz)

Subspecies including nominate:

three: A.a. albifrons, A.a. saltuensis, A.a. nana

Colour Adult:

A.a. albifrons: Male-body green, the feathers edged dusty black; red lores and red area around eyes; white forehead and forecrown; carpal edge and primary coverts red; tail green with red at base. Bill yellow. Eye ring pale grey, eye yellow. Female-carpal edge and primary coverts green.
A.a. saltuensis: Both adults body green washed with blue; blue of crown reaching to nape.
A.a. nana: Both adults as in albifrons but smaller in size.

Colour Juvenile:

As in adult female but red of lores not extending to area around eyes; white forehead and forecrown tinted with yellow. Eye pale grey.

Call:

Calls loud and varied. Include squealing, barking, loud harsh notes, loud harsh trilling and short sharp calls.

Listen Now

Video Links:

Video 1

More Information:

Avibase

Content Sources:

CITES
BirdLife International
Cornell Lab of Ornithology/Birds of the World
A Guide to Parrots of the World, Juniper and Parr, 1998
ML Media Collection Catalogue 163930, White-fronted Parrot Amazona albifrons, Ross, David L., Jr., Puntarenas, Costa Rica, Mar. 25 1996, Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Site
Parrots of the World, Forshaw and Cooper, 1977. 2010 edition
Parrots of the World, Forshaw, 2006.
Parrots in Aviculture, Low, 1992.
Psittacine Aviculture, Schubot, Clubb and Clubb, 1992.

Wild White-fronted Amazon
© Joseph C Boone [CC BY-SA 4.0] via Wikimedia Commons

Photos

View in Gallery

Did You Know?

The White-fronted Amazon is the smallest of all the Amazon parrots.

Academic Research

Related publications: Amazona albifrons

Species Care

Captive Status:

Fairly common.

Longevity:

50+ yrs

Housing:

Aviary or suspended enclosure, minimum length 3m (9.8 ft).

Diet:

Fruit such as: apple, pear, orange, cactus fruits, bananas, pomegranate, etc, forming about 30 percent of the diet; vegetables such as: carrot, celery, zucchini, green beans and peas in the pod, fresh corn; green leaves such as: Swiss chard, lettuce, sowthistle, dandelion, chickweed; spray millet; small seed mix: millet, safflower, canary and small amounts of buckwheat and oats; limited dry, soaked or sprouted sunflower seeds; cooked pulses and beans, and complete kibble.

Enrichment:

Avid chewer, so provide lots of bird-safe wood toys and branches (fir, pine, elder, willow), puzzle/foraging toys, vegetable tanned leather toys, ladders, swings. Bathing, socialization.

Nest Box Size:

12" x 12" x 24" (30.5cm x 30.5cm x 61cm) vertical box

Clutch Size:

3 or 4

Incubation Time:

26 days

Fledging Age:

7-8 weeks

Hatch Weight:

Not recorded.

Peak Weight:

Not recorded.

Weaning Weight:

Not recorded.

Wild White-fronted Amazon
© Joseph C Boone [CC BY-SA 4.0] via Wikimedia Commons

Photos

View in Gallery

Did You Know?

The White-fronted Amazon is the smallest of all the Amazon parrots.

Academic Research

Related publications: Amazona albifrons

Species Wild Status

World Population:

Unknown, increasing.

IUCN Red List Status:

Least Concern

CITES Listing:

Appendix II

Threat Summary:

Birds are taken for the wild bird trade and hunted for food. Decline may have occurred in Yucatan due to persecution of parrots feeding on cultivated fruit after loss of wild food to effects of Hurricane Gilbert.

Range:

A.a. albifrons: Pacific slope of W Mexico, south from Nayarit to SW Guatemala.
A.a. saltuensis: NW Mexico, in S Sonora, Sinaloa, and W Durango.
A.a. nana: S Mexico, in SE Veracruz, south to NW Costa Rica.

Habitat:

Found in a variety of wooded areas and open country with trees such as moist, seasonal semi-evergreen and deciduous forest, pine woodlands, gallery forest, ranchland with stands of open woodland, savanna and arid tropical scrub with cacti. Up to 1850m (6068 ft).

Wild Diet:

Takes Inga and other legumes; Croton, Terminalia, plus blossoms, berries, Ficus fruits, and cacti such as Pachycereus and Lemaireocereus; also cultivated crops such as mango and maize.

Ecology and Behaviour:

Birds vocal and excited while feeding. In pairs when breeding but sociable, occurring mostly in small flocks. Some communal roosts are reported to contain several thousand birds.

Clutch and Egg Size:

3 or 4 rounded eggs, 30.0 x 22.5mm (1.2 x 0.9 in).

Breeding Season:

January-July, depending on locality; nests are in abandoned woodpecker and other cavities.

Photos

View in Gallery

Did You Know?

The White-fronted Amazon is the smallest of all the Amazon parrots.

Academic Research

Related publications: Amazona albifrons

Members Only Resources

Please log-in now to find more research, resources and tools.

Not a Member?

Find more great information:

Gain exclusive access to 600+ pages of additional research, seminars and podcasts, specialists to ask your toughest questions, and dozens of other fun resources - when you become a WPT member.
Join Today >>