Current view: Data table and detailed info
Taxonomic source(s)
del Hoyo, J., Collar, N.J., Christie, D.A., Elliott, A. and Fishpool, L.D.C. 2014. HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World. Volume 1: Non-passerines. Lynx Edicions BirdLife International, Barcelona, Spain and Cambridge, UK.
IUCN Red List criteria met and history
Red List criteria met
Red List history
| Migratory status |
not a migrant |
Forest dependency |
medium |
| Land-mass type |
|
Average mass |
- |
Population justification: Partners in Flight (2019) estimate the population to number fewer than 50,000 mature individuals; however, recent evidence suggests that the population is considerably smaller than this. The species is known to be in rapid, ongoing decline. Current population estimates include 400-520 individuals in Guatemala (Muccio 2019; M. Dupin in litt. 2020; L. Joyner in litt. 2021), up to 200 individuals in El Salvador (N. Herrera in litt. 2021) and a few hundred individuals in Honduras and Nicaragua, respectively (L. Joyner in litt. 2021). Census data for Costa Rica suggest a population of at least 1,195 individuals in 2021 (C. Sánchez in litt. 2021).
Comprehensive surveys carried out in 2016 and 2018-2019 following a standard protocol estimate a population of 2,361 individuals across the range (Wright et al. 2019; Dupin et al. 2020). This roughly equates to 1,575 mature individuals. To account for uncertainty, the population is here placed in the band 1,000-2,499 mature individuals. It is assumed that the species forms three subpopulations, equivalent to the three recognised subspecies auropalliata, ranging from Mexico to Costa Rica, caribaea, on the islands north of Honduras, and parvipes, in northeastern Honduras and northern Nicaragua (see del Hoyo et al. 2020).
Trend justification: The species is in rapid decline as a result of numerous threats, predominantly on-going habitat destruction and unsustainable levels of poaching and exploitation for the pet trade (Dahlin et al. 2018). Observations, surveys and anecdotal evidence suggest that such declines are common throughout the entirety of the range. As such, an overall population decline of c.50% from c.1980 to 2000 has been reported (Anon. 2008). This equates to a rate of decline of 56% over three generations (35 years) during this period.
Recent population surveys support a population crash, although original population numbers are difficult to acquire. Observations suggest that the population in southern Guatemala has plummeted since the 1990s (L. Joyner in litt. 2011). Recent surveys in southwestern Guatemala resulted in no sightings at two sites where the species had historically been sighted, and less that 20 individuals were observed in total. Locals reported that environmental degradation contributed to the direct loss of one population and it is thought that certain subpopulations may now be extirpated (M. Dupin in litt. 2020). While the population in southern Guatemala numbered 30,000-50,000 individuals in the 1980s and 1990s, only less than 500 individuals were found in the area in 2019 (Muccio 2019), which translates to a decline of c.98% over three generations (35 years). In El Salvador, the species has disappeared from previously occupied sites (Herrera et al. 2020). Interviews with local elders in south-western El Salvador provide anecdotal evidence that the species has undergone a significant decline since the 1950s and 1960s (R. Bjork in litt. 2011) and it is thought that subpopulations may be on the verge of extirpation here also (T. Wright in litt. 2020). In the early 1990s, the population in Gracias a Dios, Honduras, was estimated at c.123,000 individuals; however, by this time the species had been nearly extirpated from Choluteca and El Valle (Wiedenfeld 1993). Counts conducted in the Bay Islands of Honduras revealed populations on some islands; as a consequence of intensive conservation action aimed at stopping poaching, the species is now starting to recover on Guanaja island (L. Joyner in litt. 2021). Surveys in Nicaragua indicate a steep decline in the species’s abundance between 1994-1995 and 2004 (Lezama et al. 2004), and locals in some areas report that the species has disappeared from the vicinity of human settlements (Grijalva 2008). There has been some suggestion that the introduction of a ban in trade of the species in Nicaragua may have slowed or halted declines locally (A. Salinas-Melgoza in litt. 2016): as a result of intensive conservation action to stop poaching the population on Ometepe island in Nicaragua appears to recover now, numbering several hundred individuals (Wright et al. 2019; L. Joyner in litt. 2021). Nevertheless, sites in Nicaragua that had previously held large numbers may now hold very few (M. Lezama per C. Dahlin and T. Wright in litt. 2016; Wright et al. 2019).
Formal surveys of twelve roosts in Costa Rica, surveyed in both 2005 and 2016, highlighted a 54% population decline across the period, in a region formerly considered a stronghold of the species (Wright et al. 2019). Based on this survey data, it appears that the rate of population decline has been accelerating over the past 20 years. Assuming that the decline is continuing at the same rate to the present day and into the future, the population in Costa Rica is declining by 92% over three generations (35 years).
Although there are no trend estimates for the remainder of the range, anecdotal evidence indicate that the steep declines observed in Costa Rica and southern Guatemala are mirrored in other range states. Locally, populations may however show stable or even increasing trends, largely as a consequence of intense conservation action. The overall population decline is here placed in the band 80-99% over three generations.
Country/territory distribution
Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBA)
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Yellow-naped Amazon Amazona auropalliata. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/yellow-naped-amazon-amazona-auropalliata on 23/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 23/12/2024.
