Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS

THE PARROTS

Amazons, or Blunt-tailed Green Parrots

Under this somewhat ponderous designation are aggregated some ten genera and nearly one hundred species of small or medium-sized, mainly green-plumaged Parrots, whose most marked characteristic is the possession of a short and broad, rather round or even square tail about half the length of the wing, a moderately strong bill, and a swollen, naked cere.

The great majority of these birds are confined to the tropical parts of the New World, but curiously enough a single albeit a large genus of over twenty species is widely spread over Africa south of the Desert of Sahara.

Of the American forms perhaps the most typical are the Amazons (Amazona), of which there are about forty-five species, ranging from northern Mexico through Central America and the West Indies to Bolivia and northern Argentina. They belong to a group of three genera in which there is no tufted oil-gland and the tail is short or of moderate length, in this particular genus the tail being moderate and rounded, while the under tail-coverts are always green in color.

They are all essentially gregarious, forest-haunting birds, generally of a tame and confiding disposition, and making excellent and highly prized pets, especially if taken from the nest when young; they may be taught to utter words very distinctly, as well as to sing and whistle tunes.

Humboldt mentions a venerable bird which he met with in South America and”which remained the sole possessor of a literally dead language, the whole tribe of Indians which spoke it having become extinct.”

They feed upon the fruits of various fruit trees, especially palms, and at least in Mexico are said to commit great depreciation in corn-fields when the corn is in the milk. Their eggs, apparently always two in number, are deposited in holes in the largest trees of the forest, both parents assisting in incubation and caring for the young for some time after they are able to fly. Thus the Red-fronted Parrot (A. fin-schi) of western Mexico, Colonel Grayson tells us, is especially gregarious, often assembling in large flocks.”

The forests in some localities, particularly when some kinds of fruit are in season, appear at times to be alive with them, only in the mornings and evenings, however, when they are seeking for their favorite food; they are then flying hither and thither through the woods, or perching and climbing among the branches that contain the fruit they are in search of, keeping up at the same time an incessant din of chattering.”

The Double Yellow-headed Parrot {A. oratrix) of Mexico to Honduras was found by Mr. Nelson to be so tame on the Tres Marias Islands that it could often be secured by quietly slipping over its head a noose attached to a long pole. The subject of our colored plate is the Hawk-Parrot (Deroptyus accipitrinus) of Guiana, Amazonia and Ecuador.

 

 

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