Geographic Variation in Middle American Parrots of the Amazona Ochrocephala Complex

Number 34 15 December 1966 OCCASIONAL PAPERS OF THE MUSEUM OF ZOOLOGY LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY Baton Rouge, Louisiana GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION IN MIDDLE AMERICAN PARROTS OF THE AMAZONA OCHROCEPHALA COMPLEX By Burt L. Monroe, Jr.,1 and Thomas R. Howell2 The parrot Amazona ochrocephala (Gmelin) ranges from northern Mexico to southern Brazil and is currently divided into seven recognized subspecies (Peters 1937). The species shows considerable geographic vari ation in size and color, especially in the pattern and extent of yellow areas on the head and neck. The vernacular names yellow-headed, yellow-naped, and yellow-crowned parrot, all of which have been applied to one or another form, are indicative of the color variation. This paper deals primarily with the Middle American populations of this widely distributed species, but some remarks on the South American forms are included. The approximate range of A. ochrocephala in Middle America is shown in Figure 1. Within this area the populations may be grouped into three distinct color types, the distribution of which is essentially allopatric. Yel low-headed birds (Figure 2a) are found on both slopes of Mexico (including the Islas Tres Marías, off Nayarit) south into Oaxaca and Tabasco; the species is unrecorded from most of the Yucatán Peninsula and from north eastern Guatemala, but a similar color type, with somewhat less yellow on 1Formerly Museum of Zoology, Louisiana State University; now Department of Biology, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. 2Department of Zoology, University of California, Los Angeles, California. 2 B .L . Monroe and T .R . Howell Occas. Papers Figure 1. Distribution of the Middle American subspecies of Amazona ochro cephala. Localities indicated on the map are those from which specimens were examined. the head (Figure 2b), occurs in British Honduras. Yellow-naped birds (Figure 2c) are found on the Pacific slope of Mexico and Central America from eastern Oaxaca to northwestern Costa Rica. Yellow-crowned birds (Figure 2d) occur throughout most of Panama, and the South American populations are also of this color type. This relatively simple picture is complicated by the presence of yellow-naped birds on part of the Caribbean slope of northeastern Nicaragua and Honduras (as well as on some of the Islas de la Bahía ) . In addition, there seems to be a population of the yellow- crowned type in the Sula Valley of north-central Honduras, and yellow- naped birds have also been collected there. A further complication is that these parrots are favored as pets and are widely transported; unusual locality records are often suspect since they may represent escaped cage birds. We undertook this study originally to clarify the status of the poorly known birds of the Caribbean slope of Honduras and Nicaragua, but this led to a critical reexamination of all the Middle American populations. Eventually, speci mens were examined from the entire range of A. ochrocephala, except from the Ilha Marajó region of eastern Brazil. The Yellow-headed Group Adults of Mexican populations of the yellow-headed color type are all very similar in appearance and have sometimes been considered a distinct No. 34 Variation in Amazona ochrocephala 3 species, A. oratrix. The head and throat are entirely, or almost entirely, yellow, and there is usually much yellow on the lower thighs. The bend of the wing is extensively marked with red or red and yellow, and one or both of these colors are usually conspicuously present on the alular edge of the wing. The bill in life is entirely ivory-colored; there is little postmortem change, and the bills cf most museum specimens appear quite light-colored. The cere is yellowish or ochre, even in dried specimens, and the small bristle like feathers on the cere are pale yellow. The tarsi and toes are deep ochra ceous in dried skins. Only five specimens from British Honduras are available, and in all these the yellow on the head is restricted to the forehead and crown (extending to a line just behind the eyes), the lores, and the auriculars; the remainder of the head is green. These birds closely resemble the Mexican yellow headed populations in coloration of the thighs, bend and edge of wing, cere, and tarsi and toes. Nelson (1900) described the isolated population on the Islas Tres Marías as tresmariae, distinguishing it from mainland birds on the basis of a “light, grass green back, more bluish green underparts and much greater extension of yellow on neck, especially on the under side”. This insular subspecies has been widely recognized, but the mainland populations of both slopes north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec have always been regarded as a single taxon, currently the subspecies oratrix, the type locality of which is Petapa, Oaxaca. This village is on the Pacific slope of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, approximately 18 miles north of Ixtepec, a town that may be found on most maps of the area. The Pacific- and Atlantic-slope populations are completely separate from one another for their entire range with the possible exception of the Tehuantepec region, and we know of no unequivocal data that dem onstrate a continuity of the two populations across the Isthmus. Records from the central highlands of Mexico are based on escaped cage birds (Friedmann et al. 1950: 131). We have examined and measured 35 specimens from the Atlantic slope, 14 from the Pacific slope mainland, and 13 from the Islas Tres Marías. Dr. Peter Grant has examined a total of 44 specimens from these islands, including all those seen by us, and he has generously permitted us to quote his wing and tail measurements from this large sample. The measurements are given in Table 1. It is clear that three distinct populations of yellow headed birds are present in Mexico, each one highly isolated from the others: (1) a large form, tresmariae, confined to the Islas Tres Marías; (2) a much 4 B. L. Monroe and T. R. Howell Occas. Papers Figure 2. Color patterns of heads of Amazona ochrocephala. Light areas indicate yellow, shaded areas green. (a) Yellow-headed color type. [LSUMZ 5156, type specimen of A. o. magna, ♂, Victoria, Tamaulipas, México, 27 April 1941.] (b) Yellow-headed color type. [LSUMZ 21811, type specimen of A. o. belizensis, ♂, Hill Bank, Orange Walk Dist., British Honduras, 20 November 1956.] (c) Yellow- naped color type. [LSUMZ 29067, A. o. auropalliata, ♂, 7 mi. NE Choluteca, Depto. de Choluteca, Honduras, 9 October 1952.] (d) Yellow-crowned color type. [LSUMZ 29066, ♀, 3 mi. E La Lima, Depto. de Cortés, Honduras, 20 November 1962.] smaller form occupying the lowlands of the mainland Pacific slope from Colima to eastern Oaxaca (the type of oratrix is a representative of this population, and that name therefore applies to the Pacific slope birds); (3) a large unnamed form ranging along the Atlantic slope lowlands from Tamaulipas to Tabasco, here described by us as a new subspecies. No. 34 Variation in Amazona ochrocephala 5 Amazona ochrocephala magna new subspecies Type. — Adult male; no. 5156, Louisiana State University Museum of Zoology; Victoria, Tamaulipas, México; 27 April 1941; Thomas D. Bur leigh; original number 10489. Diagnosis. — Differs from A. o. oratrix Ridgway, of western Mexico, in decidedly larger size in all dimensions. Similar in size to A. a. tresmariae Nelson, of the Islas Tres Marías, but the tail averages shorter and the middle toe averages longer; differs in color from tresmariae in lacking any bluish cast to the green feathers of individuals in fresh plumage. Measurements of the type in millimeters. — Wing (chord), 229.0; tail, 123.5; culmen from nostril, 35.2; length of middle toe without nail (meas ured from base of toe dorsally to most distal point of toe, excluding nail, with toe fully extended), 36.3. Range. — Atlantic slope of Mexico from central Tamaulipas and extreme southeastern San Luis Potosí south through Veracruz to eastern Tabasco (Balancán). Specimens examined. — In all, 35. Tamaulipas: Río Corona, near Güemes, 3; Río Cruz, 1; Río Pilón, 2; Victoria, 3; near Victoria, 1; “S. F. de Presas”, 1; Jiménez, 1; Hidalgo, 3; Soto La Marina, 4; Tampico, 5. San Luis Potosí: 10.5 mi. W Ebano, 2; Ebano, 1; El Bonito, 1; Hacienda Limón, 1; 2 mi. N Tamuín, 1. V eracruz: Río Tamesí, near Rayón, 1; Pasa Nueva, 2; Panuco, 1. Tabasco: 9 mi. N Balancán, 1. Remarks. — This subspecies is found in the tropical lowlands of the Atlantic slope of Mexico and is apparently most abundant in xerophytic associations in that region; it is also found commonly in riparian situations and ranges into humid broadleaved forest. Probably the Atlantic-slope population has not hitherto been recognized as distinct because of the scarcity of specimens from the Pacific slope and because of the large size of tresmariae, which is comparable to that of magna. The latter circumstance gave the impression that there was no reason to expect mainland Pacific- slope birds to be “small”, and also that tresmariae was, despite its isolation, a poorly defined subspecies differing only in dubious color characters. When compared with the much smaller Pacific-slope oratrix, from which it is almost surely derived, tresmariae is seen to be a well-differentiated form. Its large size shows con vergence with magna, but the two populations are completely isolated and have probably never been in any closer contact than they are at present. 6 B .L . Monroe and T .R . Howell Occas. Papers The status of the British Honduran population is also clarified by the recognition of distinct Atlantic- and Pacific-slope forms of the yellow-headed group. The British Honduran birds appear to be isolated from magna, which is not known to occur east or south of Tabasco, and are unquestionably com pletely isolated from oratrix.

Load more