Yellow-naped Amazon

How to find it

Guanacaste and the Tárcoles area are probably the easiest places to see it logistically. Because they are often silent while feeding, they are harder to see than the smaller parrots, so listen for early morning duets or watch a traditional roost at dusk. Pairs fan out from the night roosts as early as 5:00 AM, and the main dusk arrival is between 5:30 and 6:30 PM, at tall, usually bare trees. Local guides run mangrove tours to watch them gather in the trees around 6 pm before settling at roost. Scan the high canopy and listen for flight calls.

How to recognise it

Look for a large, mostly green parrot, roughly 14 inches long.

- A yellow patch on the back of the neck.

- A green forehead and crown.

- Some red and blue in the wings.

- A dark grey bill, paler toward the base of the upper bill.

- Rounded wings and a short, square tail.

Males and females look alike. Young birds lack the yellow nape and have grey eyes, while adults have yellow-red eyes. In the Santa Rosa Sector of Guanacaste Conservation Area it is the largest parrot commonly seen, and it usually flies in pairs or small family groups.

What it sounds like

Recording: Djibo Zanzot, CC BY-SA 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

These parrots feed quietly high in trees and often call only in flight. While feeding they rarely use anything but soft contact calls. Pairs near a nest, or near other pairs, may answer each other with counter-duets, and mates also give gurgling, warbling calls. Occasional larger groups gather at favoured food trees.

Unusually for parrots, they use traditional communal night roosts, often the same bare tree for generations. Birds arrive in pairs from all directions at dusk.

Where it lives

In Costa Rica it is mainly seen in dry forest and in mangroves, where it also nests in tree cavities. Across its whole range it also uses gallery forest and open savanna with scattered trees, and it is a lowland bird, not found above about 600 to 700 metres.

In this country it is found in Guanacaste from the Nicaraguan border south to around Tárcoles. It occurs throughout the Santa Rosa Sector of Guanacaste Conservation Area, and pairs are regular visitors around Pocosol. Wild parrots also move freely around the coastal village of El Jobo, between the mainland and nearby rocky islands where they roost and nest.

When to see it

A Guanacaste conservation area page calls it a year-round resident, though it may make seasonal movements that follow food supply. Nesting happens in the dry season, from December to May, when pairs keep close to their nest cavities.

Similar birds

It belongs to a large complex of similar amazons with varying yellow on the head or nape, ranging from Mexico to South America. On Costa Rica's Pacific side, though, it is the only medium-sized amazon parrot.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

Costa Ricans call it lora de nuca amarilla, and also lora copete amarillo. Both names point to the yellow patch on the back of the neck. The Latin name auropalliata comes from roots meaning gold and cloaked, a parrot wearing a golden mantle.

Status and conservation

The AOCR list marks it as a resident (R), but it is Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

Photography tips

Birds feed at the tops of trees, quiet and wary, so scan the high canopy and listen for flight calls. Early morning duets from a bare treetop and the dusk arrival at a roost give the best chance of a close look.