Red-lored Amazon (Red-lored Parrot)

The Red-lored Amazon is a medium-sized green parrot featuring bright red forehead patches, yellow cheeks, and vibrant secondary wing feathers. It flies with rapid, shallow wingbeats and is frequently seen in pairs or noisy roosting flocks calling loudly at dawn and dusk.

Vibrant emerald to parrot-green on the outer vane, with dark dusky grey to blackish suffusion on the inner vane, transitioning into a bright yellow patch near the base

Fully pennaceous and tightly interlocked structure along the main vane, transitioning to a brief plumulaceous, downy section near the calamus base

Stout, pale yellowish-white rachis that transitions to dark greenish-grey toward the tip, with high-density barbs set at a steep angle to ensure aerodynamic strength

Smooth, firm, and slightly glossy texture with durable, tightly locked barbules that provide structural integrity during flight

Secondary flight feather from the wing, identifiable by its moderate asymmetry, broad width, and rounded tip designed to form the continuous air-foil of the inner wing

Rich grass-green coloration paired with a dark greyish inner vane zone and a clear pale yellow base on the proximal barbs, built on a robust parrot-type secondary feather shape

Humid lowland tropical forests, rainforest edges, semi-open woodlands, mangrove swamps, and mature secondary growth around river corridors like the Chagres River in Gamboa

Neotropics, extending from eastern Mexico through Central America (including Panama) to northwestern South America (Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela)

Acts as a primary seed predator and disperser for various canopy trees and palms, serving as an important canopy seed processor in Neotropical rainforest ecosystems.

Mealy Amazon (Amazona farinosa) feathers are larger and paler green; Yellow-crowned Amazon (Amazona ochrocephala) feathers show subtle differences in base yellow extent and secondary color bands.

Amazona parrots display structural coloration where blue light is scattered by microstructures within the feather barbs and filtered by yellow carotenoids to produce vivid green shades.

Parrot feathers held cultural significance in pre-Columbian Neotropical indigenous art, ceremonial regalia, and traditional featherwork; today they are strictly protected.

Look for shed feathers along forest trails and under night roosting trees or fruiting canopy trees (e.g., Ficus) around Gamboa and Pipeline Road during late dry season molt periods.

Good condition; structural pennaceous vane is intact with minimal split barbs or wear, typical of a naturally shed, molted flight feather

Found in Gamboa, Panama