The Tucumán amazon (''Amazona tucumana''), also known as the Tucumán parrot, alder amazon, or alder parrot, is a

vulnerable species A vulnerable species is a species which has been Conservation status, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being threatened species, threatened with extinction unless the circumstances that are threatened species, ...

of bird in subfamily

Arinae The neotropical parrots or New World parrots comprise about 150 species in 32 genera found throughout South America, South and Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean islands and the southern United States. Among them are some of the most familia ...

of the family

Psittacidae The Family (biology), family Psittacidae or holotropical parrots is one of three families of true parrots. It comprises the 12 species of subfamily Psittacinae (the Afrotropics, Afrotropical parrots) and 167 of subfamily Arinae (the New World or ...

, the African and New World parrots. It is found in Argentina and Bolivia.

Taxonomy and systematics

The Tucumán amazon and the red-spectacled amazon (''A. pretrei'') have been considered

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

but are now treated as

sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 30 January 2023. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved January 30, 2023 The Tucuman amazon is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

Description

The Tucumán amazon is about long and weighs . It is mostly green, with black edges on the body feathers that give a scaly appearance. Its forehead and sometimes its lores are red. Bare white skin surrounds its eye. Its lower thighs are orange-yellow, its primary

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are small feathers behind t ...

red, and its undertail coverts yellow-green. Its

primaries Primary elections or primaries are elections held to determine which candidates will run in an upcoming general election. In a partisan primary, a political party selects a candidate. Depending on the state and/or party, there may be an "open pri ...

have blue tips and its tail feathers yellowish tips. Immature birds have entirely green thighs.Collar, N., P. F. D. Boesman, and E. de Juana (2020). Tucuman Parrot (''Amazona tucumana''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.tucpar1.01 retrieved February 28, 2023

Distribution and habitat

The Tucumán amazon is found from Santa Cruz and Chuquisaca departments in Bolivia south into Argentina as far as

Catamarca Province Catamarca () is a province of Argentina, located in the northwest of the country. The province had a population of 429,556 as per the , and covers an area of 102,602 km2. Its literacy rate is 95.5%. Neighbouring provinces are (clockwise, f ...

. It inhabits the

Yungas The Yungas ( Aymara ''yunka'' warm or temperate Andes or earth, Quechua ''yunka'' warm area on the slopes of the Andes) is a bioregion of a narrow band of forest along the eastern slope of the Andes Mountains from Peru and Bolivia, and extends i ...

bioregion in montane woodland characterized by pure stands of alder (''

Alnus acuminata Alders are trees of the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus includes about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species e ...

'') or '' Podocarpus parlatorei''. In elevation it mostly ranges between but occurs as low as .

Behavior

Movement

The Tucumán amazon moves seasonally between higher elevations and, in August to October, as low as at the Chaco/Yungas

ecotone An ecotone is a transitional area between two plant communities, where these meet and integrate. Examples include areas between grassland and forest, estuaries and lagoon, freshwater and sea water etc. An ecotone may be narrow or wide, and it ma ...

Feeding

A study in Argentina found that almost a quarter of the Tucumán amazon's diet was the fruits and seeds of ''Podocarpus parlatorei''; most of the rest was taken from six other plants. Winter food was dominated by ''

Acacia ''Acacia'', commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Austral ...

'' seeds. Flowers and fruits of both native and introduced plants were eaten.Rivera, L., Politi, N. and Bucher, E.H. (2012). Ecología y conservación del Loro Alisero (''Amazona tucumana''). El Hornero. 27(1): 51–61.

Breeding

The Tucumán amazon nests between November and January. It uses cavities in large trees, often those excavated by woodpeckers. In the Argentina study, the average clutch was 3.6 eggs and ranged from one to five. The incubation period was 26 to 30 days and fledging occurred 50 to 58 days after hatch. In another study, nest success was related to the availability of ''Podocarpus parlatorei'' fruits.

Vocalization

The Tucumán amazon makes a "variety of screeches and calls, including shrill shrieks and lower-pitched barks." Its flight call is "a repeated, somewhat yelping, shrill “quiowk”."

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

originally assessed the Tucumán amazon in 2004 as being of Least Concern, then in 2005 as Near Threatened, and since 2011 as Vulnerable. It has a somewhat limited range and its estimated population of fewer than 15,000 mature individuals is believed to be decreasing. "The species is susceptible to trapping for trade, which is considered the main driver of rapid population declines". "Habitat in Argentina is highly degraded and consists of small, isolated fragments." It is considered locally common but generally uncommon. It occurs in several protected areas, but less than 25% of its preferred habitat is protected.