Lilac-crowned amazon

Description

lilac-crowned amazon (Amazona finschi) is a parrot endemic to the Pacific slopes of Mexico. Also known as Finsch's amazon, it is characterized by green plumage, a maroon forehead, and violet-blue crown and neck. The binomial of this bird commemorates the German naturalist and explorer Otto Finsch. The plumage of an adult lilac-crowned amazon is primarily green with yellowish underparts and black edging. The forehead is a maroon color with a light blue-lilac neck, nape, and crown. The cheeks and ear coverts are a greenish yellow that lacks the edging that is present in most of the plumage. The primary feathers are dark blue with the secondary feathers being green while being tipped with the same dark blue coloring.mFurthermore, the initial five secondary feathers have a bright red speculum on the edge of the feathers. The wing coverts, underside of the flight feathers, and the tail are green while the tail is tipped with a yellowish coloring similar to that of the cheeks and ear coverts. Their beak, orbital rings, and legs are a palebrown-grey coloring. The irides of adult lilac-crowned parrots are amber colored. Juvenile lilac-crowned amazons are visually similar to their adult forms except for minor differences. One difference is that the iris of juveniles are a dark brown as opposed to the amber coloring that is found in adults. The other major difference is that there less maroon colored feathers on the forehead of juveniles. After about one year juveniles begin to acquire these adult features. The lilac-crowned amazon's endemic range spans along the pacific coast of Mexico, beginning in southeastern Sonora and southwestern Chihuahua down to southern Oaxaca. In Sinaloa and northern Nayarit the geographic range of the lilac-crowned parrot is above 375 meters of elevation and does not reach sea level until southern Nayarit, where it remains so through Jalisco and Oaxaca. An increasingly growing population of approximately 100 individuals is found in Southern California especially in the San Gabriel Valley and Orange Country. This increase could also be attributed to a more reliable source of measurement of population than in past years. These populations often are found in residential areas and occasionally in nesting groups with red-crowned parrots in native conifer forests or non-native captive plants.