Birdfinding.info ⇒ Can usually be found at several sites in Cockpit Country, including Windsor, Barbecue Bottom / Burnt Hill Road, and Stewart Town. In the east, Ecclesdown Road is also a reliable site. In the areas where it occurs regularly, it tends to outnumber the more widespread Yellow-billed Parrot. In Kingston, a few feral individuals can often be found at Hope Gardens.
Black-billed Parrot
Amazona agilis
Endemic to Jamaica, where it is mostly confined to two areas of humid foothill forest: in Cockpit Country and the John Crow Mountains. Wanderers sometimes appear elsewhere on the island—mainly west and north of Cockpit Country.
A small feral population appears to be established in eastern Kingston.
Identification
Green overall, with a black bill and dark smudges on the lores and forehead. Often has a black ear-patch.
The flight feathers are black and blue—a deeper shade of blue than on Jamaica’s other parrot, the Yellow-billed.
Males have a small red patch on the outer primary coverts, which often helps distinguish it Yellow-billed, when seen in flight at long range. However, female and immature Black-billed lack the red patch, so the absence of this feature is not diagnostic.
Black-billed Parrot. (Stewart Town, Jamaica; February 18, 2018.) © Tim Avery
Black-billed Parrot. (Ecclesdown Road, Jamaica; April 29, 2016.) © Frank Mantlik
Black-billed Parrot. (Ecclesdown Road, Jamaica; April 14, 2014.) © Gil Ewing
Black-billed Parrot, showing the deep blue of its wings. (Mona, Jamaica; June 8, 2008.) © Jan van den Broeck
Black-billed Parrot, pair with the male showing the red patch on its primary coverts. (Ecclesdown Road, Jamaica; February 11, 2015.) © Charley Hesse TROPICAL BIRDING
Black-billed Parrot. (Ecclesdown Road, Jamaica; April 29, 2016.) © Frank Mantlik
Notes
Monotypic species.
IUCN Red List Status: Vulnerable.
References
BirdLife International. 2016. Amazona agilis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T22686231A93103793. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22686231A93103793.en. (Accessed September 27, 2017.)
eBird. 2019. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, N.Y. http://www.ebird.org. (Accessed February 24, 2019.)
Forshaw, J.M. 2010. Parrots of the World. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Haynes-Sutton, A., A. Downer, R. Sutton, and Y.-J. Rey-Millet. 2009. A Photographic Guide to the Birds of Jamaica. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.
Raffaele, H., J. Wiley, O. Garrido, A. Keith, and J. Raffaele. 1998. A Guide to the Birds of the West Indies. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.