Abstract
Tucuman Amazons (Amazona tucumana) are delightful parrots originating from the Alder forests of the Andean slopes in southern Bolivia and northern Argentina. Tucuman Amazons are stocky parrots with petite heads and beaks. Their overall body color is dark green with each feather edged in black. The forehead is scarlet and the thighs are yelloworange. The beak is pale yellow to horn. The primary coverts are bright red and there is no red wing speculum typical of most of the mainland Amazons. The primary feathers are dark green with cobalt blue tips. The tail is yellowish green. The number of red primary covert feathers may be indicative of sex as my five males have eight to ten red feathers whereas my three females have only four or five. Juveniles have green thighs and occasionally red tipping on the tail. Sexual dimorphism may be present in the juveniles as well, as all of our female offspring to date have only had a narrow band of orange feathers on the forehead and two to four red primary coverts versus the males which have had the solid red foreheads typical of the adults and seven to ten red primary coverts.
Tucuman Amazons have never been commonly imported into the United States. Miss Anne Kindler, a South American animal dealer, first brought these birds to the United States in 1977 when she moved here from Bolivia. Only three birds survived quarantine, all of which proved to be hens. A short while later, Ramon Noegel of Life Fellowship, Seffner, Florida was able to obtain a hen which was subsequently paired with an adult male imported by a New York dealer. This pair successfully bred in 1981 and produced one chick, earning a first breeding award for Life Fellowship. An article on this first breeding was published in the Oct/Nov 1982 AFA Watchbird. Tucuman Amazons were only sporadically bred by a handful of aviculturists following this first breeding until additional birds were imported in the mid-1980s.
Since then the bird has become popular with aviculturists. In 1987, the Amazona Society recorded 54 pairs kept by its members with 1 7 chicks reared.
I acquired my first Tucuman Amazons in the fall of 1985. They had been imported as juveniles several months earler along with Bluefronted Amazons (Amazona aestiva xanthopteryx) and had suffered severely from pox during quarantine. Hopefully, the pox vaccine that is currently available for use during quarantine will reduce future losses from this often devastating disease. I purchased 12 birds of which only two were females when surgically sexed. Subsequently, one of the females died from a bacterial septicemia related to the disease problems that occurred during quarantine. Two additional females were purchased in 1986 from private individuals who had kept them as pets for a short period of time. Prior to introducing them to my aviary, the birds are quarantined at a separate facility for a minimum of 45 days and often as long as six months. During this time, they are tested for bacterial and viral infections and treated with medicated pellets for psittacosis. The long quarantine period is necessary to prevent diseases such as papillomatosis, tuberculosis and proventricular dilitation syndrome from being introduced into the main collection. They are also surgically sexed, even if they have been sexed prior to purchase. This allows me to get a good look at their organs and the condition of their gonads. This time is also used to convert the birds to a pelleted diet and to introduce them to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables.