The yellow-naped Amazon is one of the most commonly kept Amazons due to its renowned talking ability and wide spread availability. They are popular pets, but, like any bird, have their quirks and idiosyncrasies — important things to consider when looking for a long-lived pet, like an Amazon.
Care & Feeding
Most Amazon parrots love to bathe; and bathing opportunities can include joining their owner in the shower, getting a spray bath, or jumping in their water dish and splashing water all about. Bathing is an important part of an Amazon’s feather health. Because of their love of food and their habit of begging for table foods from their owners, Amazon parrots tend to tip the scales toward being overweight. An Amazon parrot needs a spacious cage with toys and swings spread out, as well as a play gym/play tree, climbing rope and/or ladders to scale to encourage movement and exercise.
An Amazon parrot often has a hearty appetite, especially for people food so owners need to make sure that they (and other household members) do not overdue it with treats and table foods. An Amazon parrot’s main diet should consist of a nutritionally balanced manufactured diet, as well as an assortment of healthy vegetables, some fruit and healthy treats that pack nutrition instead of empty calories.
Classification and Conservation
Yellow Napes are sometimes considered to be a distinct species (Amazona auropalliata) but most ornithologists classify them as a subspecies of the Yellow-Crowned Amazon. This confused taxonomy hinders Yellow Nape conservation efforts – they seem to be declining, but other Yellow Crowned Amazon subspecies are common (8-9 range from Central America to Peru).
Therefore, the IUCN lists the Yellow Naped Amazon as Least Concern (CITES designation is Appendix II).
Two rare races (or subspecies) are known – the Honduras and the Roatan Yellow-Naped Amazons.
Social Life and Reproduction
Yellow Napes form strong pair bonds and tend to socialize less with flock members than do other Amazons. Most of the daily foraging and preening is done as a pair or family group. They do, however, roost in flocks of up to several hundred birds, and there is a great deal of inter-flock communication just before night falls. Fixed roosts are used, and the spectacle of their evening return is one of the highlights of any bird-watching venture into Yellow Nape territory.
Nesting females are fed by males and incubate their 2-3 eggs alone. The eggs hatch in 26-30 days, and the chicks usually fledge at 75 days of age. Related subspecies have been observed to utilize in holes in the ground as nests.