I was disappointed at getting no eggs from my Orange-winged Amazons which lived in the nice big cage for three years, so I decided to swap their places with a pair of White-fronted Amazons (A. albifrons albifrons) sometimes called Spectacled, birds which had been in a small 18" square cage.
In another cage, I had a second pair of White-fronts which I bought from Carole Wheeler's estate. Reportedly young and untried, I decided to put all four in the big cage and let the strongest choose his mate. I stood there with a net to retrieve any bird getting attacked. The battle began and I removed one male who was on his back on the bottom of the wire fighting for his life. The next day, one of the females began to be chased and attacked, so I removed her. I had my pair. My male "Sammy" had selected a new young female of Carole's.
In the meantime, the aggressive male was already peeking in the 10x10x14" nest box, a box with a slide inspection door near the bottom. I was excited. This was after July 4th. Allopreening was followed quickly by allofeeding. I never saw them mating.
I found an egg in the box July 22, another one three days later and the third four days after that. I kept the male in apple, green cabbage, broccoli, and quartered monkey chow plus Topper's large hookbill. The hen rarely came out of the nest box. The day I caught her out, I looked in -- fast. She was back in seconds.
August 18th, a tiny wiggling thing was trying to get oriented, and I removed half an egg shell (my first Amazon. I saved it) in the nick of time. Two days later, the second egg hatched. The third, or perhaps it was the first (I didn't have time to even look at them, much less mark the eggs, before momma was back to attack) never hatched.
They were closed-banded both on the same day, September 8th, and a few days later I noticed one of them had no band. I barely slipped a new one over the knuckle with a little vaseline.
The parents fed them faithfully, and I gave them quartered monkey chow two or three times a day. A few moments afterwards I could hear the babies yelling to be filled up. The youngest one drove us crazy screaming while he got his food from dad well into December. In January 1990, the two sat beside dad and mom and trying to steal the shell peanuts fed the parents. They ate well on their own. I sold both of them -- females sexed at one year. The loser White-fronts have never bred, while the productive ones hatched two more babies.
The homemade cage, the bottom one in a double decker with a galvanized tray above them to catch the droppings of a pair of Patagonian conures, was 4'6" long by 2x2' and was on an east-west axis with the nest box on the aisle with the opening facing south. Light poured in from above on the north.
End-run newspapers were in the tray under the cage. It was necessary to reach in the cage to change water and replenish seed. Vegetables and monkey chow were shoved (fast) through the 1x2" wire openings into the food tray. Occasional pine branches and honeysuckle were put in by the cage door.
In 1990, the birds laid again, but disturbances by the carpenters repairing the roof I'm sure was responsible for no production. In 1991, four eggs, four babies, a little earlier than in 1989. In late June, the eggs hatched. We had regular newspaper in the tray under the wire and we gave no pine branches. The monkey chow was now Topper chow, and the birds were eating some seed but mostly Pretty Bird pellets. I scraped a little bit of cuttle bone into their food dishes both years. Can't remember about 1990.
I've reported about aviculturists preparing elaborate diets for their White fronts, but perhaps what you give them isn't as important as getting them paired and to breed the first time. Once paired and breeding, give them plenty of vegetables and limbs or stems to chew on, peanuts and apples, regardless whether you feed pellets or seeds.
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The White-fronted is a 10" bird, with a red-white and blue colored head with the red joining the area around white skinned eye area. Behind the crown, blue. Bill is pale yellow. The rest of it is green with the male having red on the forward edge of the wing. Females generally don't have the red there.
The albifrons habitat is in the dry woods and bush country of western Mexico and western Costa Rica, and often make their nests in cactus thickets. Since it drinks "little" water, a ball-tipped drinker seems to be better than an open dish, and more healthful. They do enjoy an occasional fine spraying of water, especially in hot weather. They might like it more often, but I don't do it.
Infrequently sought as pets, therefore unfortunately not bred as often as the larger Amazons. They make nice pets if gotten from the nest and handfed out. They will feed their birds to weaning if left in. Be prepared to look at a green parrot until it grows to adulthood. Insure family involvement to prevent fixation on one human and therefore aggressive to others.
The White-front will develop a good vocabulary and copy sounds. It is quieter than the larger Amazons in pet situations.
At breeding time, birds will flair their tails, become noisier, and protective of their nestboxes. Females sit on the eggs, and don't pass feces for three days at a time, it is said. Incubation is 23-30 days and the female doesn't like her eggs to be viewed (look at them quickly while the hen is out of the box), and nest time is 60-65 days. Some say the birds will breed a second time if indoors. Males become mature at 4 years old.