Black Billed Amazon Parrot

Black Billed Amazon Parrots (Amazona agilis), also known as the Black-billed Parrot, is an amazon parrot that is endemic to Jamaica and West Indies. Its preferred habitat consists of humid mountainous rainforest, usually limestone rainforest, at the middle level of high ground.

Due to habitat destruction, poaching for food, and trapping for the pet trade, this parrot – once as common as the Yellow-billed Amazon – has now become rare and endangered. These parrots are seen in small groups or flocks of up to 30 birds where they blend into the canopy of the forest perfectly camouflage by their green plumage. They are usually detect by their screeching calls during flight. They often form larger flocks with the Yellow-billed Amazon Parrot, usually when foraging.

This parrot averages 10 ins (25 cm) in length and is mostly green with small patches of red on the wing and sometimes flecked on the head. The ear coverts are tinge blackish and the underwing coverts and undersides of flight feathers are bluish-green. Its feet are grey and the irides (= plural of iris) are dark brown. Its grey bill, with a pale base, makes it easy to separate from most other Amazons, including the Yellow-billed Amazon, which also is a native of Jamaica.