Conservation Information

Orange-winged Amazons (Amazona amazonica) are one of the smaller Amazons from South America's Amazon basin. They are a gregarious parrot, moving from tree to tree in large flocks in search of ripe fruits and nuts.(1)

Its plumage in the wild is emerald green. The crown is yellow with lores and above the eye there is a violet-blue region; cheeks are yellow. The edge of the wing is yellowish-green and primaries are green to violet-blue with black tips. The outer feathers are washed with orange-red.(2)

There are over 50 species of the Amazona family. There is confusion, as a result, in telling the difference between species like the BLUE FRONTED (Amazona aestiva) and the ORANGE WINGED (Amazona amazonica) Amazon. Both have blue and yellow on and around the head and face and often Orange-wings are advertised for sale as blue-fronts. There are, however, differences between them and the most obvious is the color of the beak. The Blue-front has a black beak (top & bottom mandibles) while the Orange-wing has a horn-colored beak (often with darker streaks). Another fairly obvious difference (and hence the origin of the name Orange-wing) is that the feathers in the wing spectrum are orange in the Orange-wing but red in the Blue-Front. Orange-wings have a more even temperament in general than Blue-fronts.(2)

Distribution: Venezuela, Colombia, Eastern Ecuador and Peru, Northern Bolivia, Brazil, French Guinea, Guyana and Suriname. The orange-winged is, in fact, the most numerous parrot of Suriname.

They make a joyful noise (8) flying high overhead:

Natural diet: Seeds, fruits, berries, flowers and nuts

Length: 13 to 14 inches long (31-34cm)

The Parrot Family
All members of the parrot family share a number of distinctive features (3). The most obvious of these is the characteristic parrot bill which consists of a downward-curving and somewhat hooked upper mandible which fits neatly over a smaller, upward-curving lower mandible.

The feet of parrots are also unusual. The two outer toes of the foot point backwards and grip in opposition to the two forward pointing inner toes, providing them with an extremely powerful grasp. It also enables them to hold and manipulate objects close to their bill.

Most parrots are tree-dwellers and tend to be most plentiful in and around lowland tropical forests. They feed on fruits, especially wild figs, seed, nuts, berries, buds and blossoms.

Life Expectancies of Parrots (4)
African Grey Parrot 50 to 60 years

Amazon Parrot - 50 to 60 years or more, with right diet and no stress

Cockatiel - 15 to 20 years

Cockatoo - up to 70 years

Conure - 15 to 20 years

Eclectus - 30 to 50 years

Macaw - up to 80 years

Parrot Predators in the Wild
Who are the parrot's predators?

According to Dr. Don Brightsmith of the Tambopata Macaw Project in southeastern Peru (5) : "In the rainforest the answer is whichever predator can catch them. Many mammals would undoubtedly eat an adult parrot if they could but I imagine that few ever get the chance."

He goes on to say that the fact that most parrots are highly arboreal and spend most of their time in or flying above the tallest trees suggests that they rarely fall victim to mammalian predators. One mammal that that may be an effective predator of parrots is the False Vampire Bat (Vampyrum spectrum). This is the largest bat in the New World with a wingspan of nearly 3 ft. It flies by night and locates birds as they sleep. It then carries its prey back to its roost where it feeds. The book Tropical Nature by Forsyth and Miyata reports that a roost of this bat in Costa Rica contained the feathers of ". . . parrots and a host of other birds."

As for non-flying mammals, Dr. Brightsmith has heard a second hand report of an adult Green-winged Macaw (Ara chloroptera) being captured by a Brown Capuchin Monkey as the macaw waited in the trees above a clay lick in Peru.

It is much more common for parrots to fall prey to raptors.

Aviculture: A Booming Business
The hobby of bird-keeping originally focused on low-cost birds such as canaries, fancy pigeons, and domestic strains of budgerigar. What is comparatively new (6) is the discovery that the successful breeding in captivity of some birds, primarily members of the parrot family, can provide a fascinating hobby that also is highly profitable. This discovery has caused a great expansion of interest in aviculture in general, and in an increased demand for the importation of wild-caught parrots in particular. With the ready availability of air transport, large numbers of parrots have since been captured and removed from the wild, reaching a peak in the years 1970 to 1990.

Many species, in fact, were put at risk in the process and conservation bodies worldwide rigorously opposed the exploding traffic in exotic birds. The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES)(10) has, with organizations like TRAFFIC (11), worked diligently to try to reduce this threat to the survival of parrots in the wild.

Still, there are those who are clearly not concerned about the welfare of birds and who continue to act illegally for profit. They serve to remind the rest of us that we must make a concerted effort to support aviary-bred parrots and to remove our support for wild-caught parrot operations small and large.

As we speak, large numbers of parrots are still being exported from Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Rainforest Preservation Foundation
The Rainforest Preservation Foundation (7) is dedicated to saving the Brazilian rainforests. It purchases acreage from the individual land owners in the Amazon rainforest. The land is then placed in a perpetual trust, never to be sold or destroyed.

From them we learn some sobering facts:

The world's rainforests are disappearing at an average rate of a football field every second, which translates to:

75 acres every minute
108,000 acres a day
39 million acres every year

The map below iillustrates the fact that only a tiny fraction of our planet's land mass, approximately 6%, is rainforest. What you can't see from this or any map is that 80% of all surface vegetation on earth is contained in these rainforests. Nor can you see from the map that 50% of the earth's oxygen is generated by these rainforests, and that 50% to 90% of all life forms on earth exist in these rainforests.

Problems of Orange-winged Amazons in Captivity
One interesting report (9) examines the results of three studies into environmental enrichment and the development of abnormal behaviours in young caged Orange-winged Amazon parrots (Amazon amazonica). It's findings are summarized below:

*Feather picking of psychogenic origin has often been attributed to a captive environment lacking sufficient stimulation, particularly companionship and opportunities to forage. Improved feather condition is strongly related to an enriched environment

*Parrots from an enriched environment showed decreased fearfulness when confronted with novel objects and humans.

*Anecdotal evidence suggests that the companionship of another parrot may impact adversely on the individual bond between owners and their parrots. However, results from this study demonstrated that 57% of the birds housed singly developed stereotypic behaviours such as pacing and bar chewing, while paired birds exhibited none of these behaviours.

All too often, it seems, people adopt parrots as pets and then loose interest in them, which ultimately leads to significant deterioration in the bird's caged behavior. Having a parrot as a pet requires a long-term commitment to meeting its most basic needs for healthy food, adequate space, sunlight, toys, and enduring, interactive companionship.

Help us help the world's parrots! Pass this page along to interested others.

01 http://www.parrot-link.co.uk/amazone.htm

02 http://www.arndt-verlag.com/projekt/parse.cgi?Desc=E333.htm&Pic=333_1.JPG

03 http://www.honoluluzoo.org/amazon_parrots.htm

04 http://www.parrotchronicles.com

05 http://www.thewildconnection.org/aboutus.html

06 http://www.canadianparrottrust.org/manifesto.htm

07 http://www.800rainforest.org/

08 http://webserv.nhl.nl/~ribot/english/amam_ng.htm

09 http://vein.library.usyd.edu.au/links/Essays/2003/perin-vale.html

10 http://www.cites.org/

11 http://www.traffic.org/

World Parrot Trust

The Rainforest Foundation

BioBrasil

Tropical Rainforest Coalition

Wildlife Conservation Society

Parrots International

Perroquet.net

12 Parrot Species that highlight the threats to all parrots

The AmaZone

Forest Conservation Portal

CITIES: Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

Tropical Rainforests: Their Wonders and the Perils They Face

Species Survival Network

INFO ON SPECIFIC PARROT SPECIES

Wild Life of the Amazon

The Internet Bird Collection: Research by species, geographical region, names

The Complete Lixicon of Parrots: Amazons Amazona

Phoenix Landing: Provides for parrots in need and acts as advocates for those without protection

The World Parrot Refuge: Building a Home for Life