The Saint Vincent amazon (''Amazona guildingii'') also known as Saint Vincent parrot, is a large, approximately 40 cm long, multi-colored
amazon parrot
Amazon parrots are parrots in the genus ''Amazona''. They are medium-sized, short-tailed parrots native to the Americas, with their range extending from South America to Mexico and the Caribbean. ''Amazona'' is one of the 92 genera of parrots ...
with a yellowish white, blue and green head, greenish-bronze upperparts
plumage
Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...
, and violet blue-green wings.
Description
The bird is a long, mostly green, multi-colored amazon parrot with a yellowish white, blue and green head, greenish-bronze upperparts, grey feet, reddish eye, and violet blue-green wings. Its tail feathers are blue with broad yellow tips. There is a less yellow-brown
morph and a less common green morph.
Both sexes are similar. The young has lighter plumage and brown
iris.
Range
The Saint Vincent amazon is
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found els ...
to the heavily forested mountains of the
Caribbean island of
Saint Vincent in the
Lesser Antilles
The Lesser Antilles ( es, link=no, Antillas Menores; french: link=no, Petites Antilles; pap, Antias Menor; nl, Kleine Antillen) are a group of islands in the Caribbean Sea. Most of them are part of a long, partially volcanic island arc bet ...
. Its diet consists mainly of fruits, nuts, flowers and seeds. The female usually lays one to two
egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...
s.
Conservation
The Nicholas Wildlife Aviary Complex, located within the
Botanic Gardens of
Saint Vincent (island)