Thick-billed Parrot
Thick-billed Parrot
Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha
At a Glance
This large parrot feeds on pine cones in the mountains of Mexico, moving around nomadically with changes in the cone crop. It was formerly a sporadic visitor to the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico, but the last big invasions were in the 1920s. In the 1990s, small numbers from Mexico were released into the Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona, with the hope that a resident population would become established, but the experiment has not resulted in a viable local population.
All bird guide text and rangemaps adapted from Lives of North American Birds by Kenn Kaufman© 1996, used by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Category
Perching Birds
IUCN Status
Endangered
Habitat
Forests and Woodlands, Shrublands, Savannas, and Thickets
Behavior
Direct Flight, Flap/Glide
Population
2.500
Range & Identification
Description
L 16" (40cm) WS 33 (83cm). A large, long-tailed parrot with a huge blackish bill. Mostly green, with red on forehead and eyebrow, also some red on shoulder. Yellow stripe on underside of wing shows in flight.
Size
About the size of a Crow
Wing Shape
Long, Pointed, Tapered
Tail Shape
Long, Pointed, Wedge-shaped
Songs and Calls
A gentle, talkative ahhr and a-ha-ha-ha, soft for a parrot.
Call Pattern
Rising, Simple
Call Type
Raucous, Scream
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