Thick-billed Parrot

Overview

Thick-billed Parrot: Large green parrot, dark thick bill, orange bare-skinned eye-ring, red forehead, shoulders, thighs. In flight shows striking black tail and flight feathers, with bright green, yellow, and red patches on wing coverts. Gray feet, legs. Swift direct flight with shallow wing beats.

Range and Habitat

Thick-billed Parrot: Resident in the Sierra Madre Occidental of western Mexico. Formerly ranged as far north as southern Arizona; attempts to reestablish these populations have not been successful. Inhabits mature pine and conifer forests on slopes and mountains, but populations are declining due to deforestation.

INTERESTING FACTS

A sentinel is usually posted to scan the skies for raptors while the flock feeds.
Along with the extinct Carolina Parakeet, the Thick-billed Parrot is one of the only two parrot species whose former range included the United States. They were extirpated from the U.S. by about 1920 due to hunting.
They have been considered endangered since the late 1970's because of habitat loss and severe population reductions. However they are well-established in captive breeding programs in many zoos across the world.
A group of parrots has many collective nouns, including a "company", "pandemonium", "prattle", and "psittacosis" of parrots.

The Thick-billed Parrot has a small range, mainly confined to a small portion of western Mexico. Native to Mexico and reintroduced to the United States, this bird prefers temperate, subtropical, or tropical forest ecosystems. The global population of this bird is estimated at only 2,000 to 2,800 individuals and has both a small population and a declining area of habitat, necessitating inclusion on the IUCN Red List. For this reason, the current evaluation status of the Thick-billed Parrot is Endangered.