Thick-billed Parrot

The thick-billed parrot is a species named after its thick bill. A debate regarding whether it is a macaw or a conure exists since it has been called both. They are sometimes nicknamed snow parrots because they can tolerate cold better than other parrots. Local Mexicans call it guacamaya, meaning “macaw”, or cotorra serrana, meaning “mountain parrot”. International Ornithologists’ Union designated the name “thick-billed parrot”, as the official common name for this species.

Description

Length: 1.25-1.41 ft (38-43 cm)

Weight:  11-13 oz (315-370 g)

Body and Coloration: These are medium-sized parrots with large and thick black bills. The coloration of their bodies is apple-green, and foreheads, shoulders, thighs, and bend of the wings are poppy-red. Their underwings have reddish edges with some blackish-green stripes followed by some yellow stripes, and the rest is a shade of dark green. The undersides of their tails are black. A lemon-yellow circle is ringed around their amber eyes.

Juveniles’ eyes are brown, and their beaks are paler. Also, they do not have the red color on the bend of their wings, which is green.

Range and Distribution

Their distribution is limited to the Sierra Madre Occidental in Chihuahua and Durango, Mexico.

However, formerly their range extended across the US, from Utah to Texas. Later it was only found in Arizona and New Mexico, with the last sightings being in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona in 1935 and 1938.

Habitat

Thick-billed parrots inhabit mature pine-oak, pine, fir, and temperate conifer forests. They prefer high mountain ranges, also called sky islands, at 3,900-11,500 ft (1,200-3,500 m), sharing the habitat with painted redstarts, violet-crowned hummingbirds, and varied buntings. Although, sometimes they come down to lower altitudes when it snows.

Diet

They are omnivorous. Their diet mainly consists of seeds from various pines, such as Apache pine, Chihuahua pine, Douglas fir, and yellow pine, with a high preference for Mexican white pine. They also consume acorns, berries, fruit, insects, pine buds, tree bark, and other seeds.

In winter, thick-billed parrots sometimes eat snow as a water source.

Behavior

• These parrots mainly nest in abandoned, old woodpecker holes but may also nest in other tree cavities. Quaking aspen is the most selected tree for nesting in parts of their range.
• Their call contains a variety of harsh and rolling sounds. Sometimes it resembles the sound of human laughter. When predators are near, they cry sharply to alert others in the flock. These calls can reach up to two miles away.
• Thick-billed parrots are highly social, with a single flock containing 12-1000 birds. They often preen each other and even feed one another food stored in the pouch inside their throat called a crop. Particular ‘pecking order’ and rules exist inside the flocks, followed by every individual within.
• During seasonal migration, they might travel for hundreds of miles. Since they were only tracked some of the way, it is assumed that these birds may have covered the whole distance in one flight without stopping. Not all individuals of this species migrate.
• When they travel from roosting areas to feeding grounds, these birds fly in a V formation.
• To feed on pine seeds, they use their beaks to shred the pinecone, removing each one from the base to the cone tip. This feeding method is tough, and every parent teaches it to their chicks. Learning this process may take up to a year.
• When it snows heavily, to access the cones, they hang upside down and climb on the underside of branches that do not have snow covers.
• They move around depending on the abundance of cones, showing nomadic behavior.

Lifespan

The longevity of this bird in the wild is unknown. In captivity, they live up to 33 years.

Adaptations

• Their green body helps them blend in with their habitat, protecting them from predators.
• Their long and thick bills help them to break the hard shells of any nut.
• They are strong flyers, which helps them escape from aerial predators. These birds can outsmart peregrine falcons by flying downwards and into trees that they don’t enter.

Mating and Reproduction

Their breeding cycle highly depends on conifer cone supplies and is synced with the production of pine seeds. Mating occurs anywhere between May and September. These parrots are monogamous, forming pairs for life. During courtship, both males and females preen each other. Also, females receive regurgitated food from males.

Females lay about 2-4 eggs in abandoned woodpecker holes. Parrots chew and spit out the bark to make these holes larger. Incubation lasts for 24-30 days. During this time, the males forage and bring food to the nest, and after the eggs hatch, both parents nurse the chicks. These birds grow slowly and stay in the nest for 2-3 months when they fledge. The parents still feed the chicks even after they learn to fly. They become independent and sexually mature at seven months old.

Predators

Thick-billed parrots fall prey to goshawks, owls, red-tailed hawks, and ring-tailed cats.

Conservation Status

These birds are “Endangered” or “EN” in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The current estimated population of this parrot ranges between 840-2800

These birds once heavily depended on the nearly extinct imperial woodpecker’s abandoned nests. The decline of these woodpeckers stopped providing these nests, which may have been connected to the reduction of thick-billed parrots’ range.

Other threats to this parrot include habitat loss caused by climate change and logging, illegal pet trade, and shooting.

Interesting Facts

• In the 1980s, there was an unsuccessful attempt to reintroduce these birds to Arizona. It failed due to excessive predation, especially by goshawks, as well as human development, residency, and agriculture. In 1993, the project was abandoned, and the last introduced specimen was seen in 1995.
• Among certain Native American tribes, the thick-billed parrot had some religious and cultural significance.