ML415295791

Age

Not specified

Sex

Not specified

Media notes

Notice the tail length of the 2nd and 3rd birds from the left, as well as the 2nd bird from the right. The tails look fairly long. Additionally, all birds present show restricted red foreheads.

Observation details

Finally managed some photos of these Amazona sp. First heard at around 6:30, giving the same high-pitched squeaky calls as heard on past visits. I then managed a few blurry photos of a pair in flight. These birds flew to the north and landed in the bare branches of a tree further north along the trail (I think these are the bare trees near the water tank). A few more birds came in and gathered with them. The low light levels severely hindered my photo quality, but they still show that these parrots have a (A) dark, maroon forehead patch, which is strongly restricted to the forehead; (B) hindcrown and nape colors that appear to be more of a lavender than the blue of the Red-crowned Parrot; and (C) blocky, more square head shapes. Their calls also strongly matched audio recordings of Lilac-crowned Parrots from Mexico, especially https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/290002. I did not get an audio recording this time, but the calls I heard today sounded nearly identical to what I heard and recorded on past checklists (see https://ebird.org/checklist/S100965490 and https://ebird.org/checklist/S101933408). Tail length is a bit wonky in my photos; some of the birds show tails that are noticeably long, other show tails of more moderate length. I think this has something to do with how the tails are held. It's also difficult to analyze this feature without RCPA nearby, but it does still stand out on some of the birds. Additionally, the color of some of their bills appears to be more of a bright orange, though this is very subtle and probably not much to rely on. My photos do not show cere color or the prominence of the scaling on the belly, but I think that the other aforementioned features, in conjunction with the distinct calls, still strongly support Lilac-crowned Parrot. It's difficult to say how many Lilac-crowned Parrots were present, but at least 7 birds show these Lilac-crowned characteristics in the photos I got. I suspect there are probably more birds. I've added comments and details to the photos uploaded to this checklist. The cropped photos are screenshots, so some of the meta data might not be right. Very open to comments on these birds.

Technical information

Model

COOLPIX P1000

ISO

1600

Focal length

539 mm

Flash

Flash did not fire

f-stop

f/8.0

Shutter speed

0.04 sec

Dimensions

3264 pixels x 2448 pixels

Original file size

1.91 MB