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A green yellow-naped amazon parrot perched on a bare branch.
Photo: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Yellow-Naped Amazon

Amazona auropalliata

A green Central American parrot with a yellow patch on the back of its neck, now critically endangered because of the pet trade.

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About the Yellow-Naped Amazon

Yellow-naped amazons are about 14 inches long and weigh 11 to 18 ounces. They are mostly green with yellow on the top of the head and back of the neck, red and dark blue wing feathers and orange eyes. They live in forests, thorn scrub and mangroves along the coasts of southern Mexico and Central America, and eat fruits, seeds and flowers.[1]

Quick facts

Scientific name
Amazona auropalliata[1]
Size
About 14 inches long.[1]
Weight
11 to 18 ounces.[1]
Diet
Fruits, seeds and flowers; sometimes crops.[1]
Habitat
Forests, thorn scrub and mangroves.[1]
Where it lives
Coastal southern Mexico and Central America.[1]
Group life
Pairs or small groups.[1]
Babies
2 or 3 eggs in a tree hole, incubated 25 to 26 days.[1]
Conservation status
Critically Endangered (IUCN Red List, assessed 2021).[2]

Fun facts

  • Yellow-naped amazon pairs sing duets.[1]
  • Some populations dropped by 98 percent in about 35 years.[1]
  • They fly to and from their roosts early and late in the day.[1]

Vocabulary

nape
The back of the neck.
duet
A song performed by two together.
poach
To illegally hunt or take animals from the wild.
pet trade
Buying and selling wild animals as pets, which can take too many from the wild.
critically endangered
A conservation label meaning a species faces an extremely high risk of dying out in the wild.

See it in person

Sources

  1. [1] San Francisco Zoo & Gardens. “Yellow-naped Amazon.” https://www.sfzoo.org/yellow-naped-amazon/ (accessed 2026-10-02)
  2. [2] IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. “Amazona auropalliata (Yellow-naped Amazon).” https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22686342/180373727 (accessed 2026-10-02)

Facts last checked 2026-10-02.

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