Red-Loreds-Some Scarce

A. Yellow-cheeked

A. Autumnalis autumnalis. Crown and nape bluish purple with red. Not as much of a white eyering as sub-species. 13" long. Range: Eastern Mexico to Nicaragua.

B. Salvin's

A. a. salvini. No yellow. Red front, bright green cheeks and ear coverts (looks much like a Mexican Red Head). Blue crown to nape. 13.5" long. Nostrils unfeathered. Range: Nicaragua to Columbia. C. Lilacine

A. a. lilacina. Feathers on crown edged in lilac. Bright yellowish (new beak) to greenish yellow cheeks. Red over the yes. Male's tail feathers almost an inch shorter than female's. 12" long. Range: Western Ecuador to Colombian border.

D. Diademed

A. a. diadema. Bright yellow goes below the cheek. 14" long. Range: Northwest Brazil in Amazonas rain forest.

Red lored Amazons have dimorphic eye coloring. Look at the iris. Nominate male's iris is golden, female's are dark brown.

Red-loreds live at 1,150 ft. lowlands up to 2,133 ft. In Honduras, at elevations of 3,609 ft. In the non-breeding season, author Dieter Hoppe says, a thousand of them gather in ancestral roosting trees. In N.E. Mexico, some are found in moist lowlands, or live along rivers. More common among Pacific coast of South America, on the east coast in Central America, and below the Yucatan through Panama. They are noisy as a group, also seen in pairs. They are active in the morning and evening, and stay in the upper branches of trees, and seldom move in the hotter midday hours. They favor the edge of the rain forest, where they can raid fruit orchards and cornfields. They also love half-ripe (and ripe) mangoes, palm fruits, and citrus. In SW Columbia, reports are the birds like fruits of certain palm trees, and in Belize, they like ripening citrus and mangoes.

October in Ecuador and Colombia, April on the Gulf of Mexico, land corresponding with South Florida. Wedde says February to June. They lay 2 to 4 eggs, with a 25-day incubation period. In captivity, foster parents were more successful. An aviculturist in Massachusetts hatched two chicks, but at six weeks old, the parents suddenly killed them. So, he experimented and fed canned dog food for the next hatch. The parents doubled the consumption at the time of feeding the clutch, but the babies were healthy and active.

In the wild, tree cavities, or abandoned woodpeckers nests serve as nest sites.

In captivity, a small well-sealed wine cask with a 14-inch hole in one side was successfully used by a breeder in Central Iowa. One pound of peat on the bottom, above that, 2 inches of wood shavings. Hole in the shade. Warm accommodations, night temperature not below 40 degrees F. Reports say that they can acclimate. Lilacina needs high humidity and heat.

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