Cuban amazon
| Cuban amazon | |
|---|---|
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| A. l. leucocephala in Cuba | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Psittaciformes |
| Superfamily: | Psittacoidea |
| Family: | Psittacidae |
| Subfamily: | Arinae |
| Tribe: | Androglossini |
| Genus: | Amazona |
| Species: | A. leucocephala |
| Binomial name | |
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Amazona leucocephala (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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The Cuban amazon (Amazona leucocephala) also known as Cuban parrot or the rose-throated parrot, is a medium-sized mainly green parrot found in woodlands and dry forests of Cuba, the Bahamas and Cayman Islands in the Caribbean.
The Cuban amazon is a medium-sized parrot 28–33 centimetres (11–13 in) long. It is mainly green with some blue feathers in its wings. The green feathers are edged with a terminal black rim. Its lower face, chin and throat are rosy pink, and its forehead and eye-rings are white. The extent of the various colours of the head, the extent of the rosy pink on the upper chest, and the extent of the dull red on the abdomen vary between the subspecies. Its irises are pale olive-green, its beak is horn-coloured, and the feathers over the ears are blackish. The legs are pink. The juvenile has little or no red on the abdomen, less black edging on the green feathers, and some of the feathers on the top of its head may be pale yellow rather than white.
Traditionally, most authorities have recognize four subspecies of the Cuban amazon, thereby following the 1928 review by James Lee Peters.
A. l. palmarum (Todd, 1916) was thought to be a separate subspecies living in western Cuba (east to Villa Clara Province) and Isla de la Juventud based on differences in the plumage, but in 1928 a re-evaluation indicated that the colour differences were due to age-related variations and that they showed no substantial differences to the specimens obtained from the rest of Cuba (i.e., A. l. leucocephala sensu stricto). The two populations are very similar genetically, but some authorities have maintained that A. l. palmarum is a valid subspecies. A recent review based on morphology and plumage supported the distinction of A. l. palmarum (at least if restricted to the population on Isla de la Juventud), it having a longer wing chord and metatarsus, and a larger rosy pink throat patch than A. l. leucocephala of the Cuban mainland. This review also revealed differences among the populations on the various islands in the Bahamas (some of which had already been pointed out earlier), leading to the suggestion of restricting A. l. bahamensis to the now extirpated population of the Acklins and Crooked Islands, while it was proposed that the two extant populations from the Abaco Islands and the Inagua Islands each represent a new subspecies. The recognition of three subspecies from the Bahamas is also supported by genetics.
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Wikipedia