Proposal (1026) to South American Classification Committee

Change English group name of Amazona species from “Parrot” to “Amazon”

Two major world bird lists, the IOC World Bird List (http://worldbirdnames.org) and the HBW/BirdLife Checklist, currently use the name “Amazon” instead of “Parrot” for all members of the genus Amazona (https://birdsoftheworld.org/bow/species/psitta3/cur/species#genusAmazona). In addition, a large number of other sources that do not follow NACC and/or SACC to the letter have used “Amazon” over a period of many years, and the number of such usages in influential works seems only to be increasing. For example, these include Wolters (1975, Die Vögelarten der Erde), Collar et al. (1992, Threatened Birds of the Americas), Gwynne et al. (2010, Birds of Brazil: the Pantanal and Cerrado of Central Brazil), Athanas and Greenfield (2016, Birds of Western Ecuador), McMullan and Navarrete (2018, Fieldbook of the Birds of Ecuador), Freile and Restall (2018, Birds of Ecuador), Kirwan et al. (2019, Birds of the West Indies), Hilty (2021, Birds of Colombia), Pearman and Areta (2021, Birds of Argentina), Dyer and Howell (2023, Birds of Costa Rica), and Howell and Dyer (2023, Birds of Belize). It seems likely that many other sources would have opted to use “Amazon” had they not been explicitly following NACC/SACC.

Furthermore, “Amazon” is widely used for members of Amazona in the pet trade and aviculture. Google results from July 2024 give a good illustration of the strength of the use of “Amazon” in popular references to Amazona parrots.

Search parameters	No. hits
Yellow-headed Amazon	10,700,000
Yellow-headed Parrot	836,000
Amazona oratrix	3,300
Amazona oratrix top 10 hits using “parrot”	3 (3%)
Yellow-headed Parrot top hits using “Amazon”	7 (70%!)

Wikipedia was the top result from the scientific name search--Wikipedia uses IOC names and thus used Amazon. The three top hits that used “Parrot” in the above test were ones that seem to follow NACC and SACC (eBird, California Parrot Project, and an invasive species mapping project). In general, it seems that NACC and SACC are outliers in using “Parrot” for all Amazona.

In addition to increased synchrony among global bird lists and improved search results, we see several more significant advantages to embracing the name “Amazon” for all members of Amazona.

1) Parrots are familiar and highly recognizable at a family level, so applying a name like “Amazon” will not confuse the relationships for ornithologists, birders, or the general public. When an Amazona is seen, it would be generally understood to be a parrot.

2) Within Psittacidae, the use of “parakeet” and “parrot” represent little more than morphotypes, with no strong tie to phylogeny. In general, parakeets are small, slender, and long-tailed while parrots (except in Australia) are large, thick-set, and short-tailed (Rhynchopsitta and Ognorhynchus being notable New World exceptions in being long-tailed). The result is a somewhat dizzying array of similar names with very little to inform more specific relationships, physiology, or other traits. Trochilidae and Tyrannidae have similar issues, but thankfully use a much wider array of names that convey important aspects of appearance and phylogeny. Applying “Amazon” for one of the most diverse genera would be a major aid to understanding and while the NACC and SACC have explicitly not tried to make English names taxonomically concordant (e.g., warbler, tanager, sparrow, etc. are used as morphotypes), they have also acknowledged that, when not too disruptive, such changes can be beneficial (e.g., recent adjustments to use Blue-throated Mountain-gem and Racket-tipped Thorntail to help clarify relationships).

3) The name “Amazon” is almost identical to the genus Amazona, making it easy to remember both the English name and the scientific name. This would help birders and ornithologists to remember which species are in Amazona as opposed to other genera. This is useful for field identification, since Amazona have a distinctive, shallow-winged flap and vocal similarities. Since the genus is so distinctive, it is helpful to have an English name that effectively identifies these differences.

4) There are 60 recognized species in the New World with the name parrot (Table 1), spread across 12 genera. Six of those genera are monotypic and, other than Amazona, the most diverse are Pionus and Pyrilia with seven members each. Amazona accounts for more than half of the species with the name “Parrot”.

Genus	No. species
Alipiopsitta	1
Deroptyus	1
Graydidascalus	1
Ognorhynchus	1
Pionopsitta	1
Triclaria	1
Pionites	2
Rhynchopsitta	2
Hapalopsittaca	4
Pionus	7
Pyrilia	7
Amazona	32

Table 1. Genera using the name “parrot” in the New World; all except Rhynchopsitta (nearly endemic to Mexico) occur in South America.

5) Usage of “Amazon” instead of “Parrot” for Amazona species is already very widespread and would not involve a learning curve or much disruption.

6) With so many species from diverse lineages known as “parrot” worldwide, there are several names that are confusing for birders and, accordingly, eBird sometimes sees people picking the entirely wrong taxon. By providing more clarity on Amazona vs. other parrots, these problems will be alleviated somewhat. Below are four of the more confusingly similar names for unrelated taxa:

a. White-crowned Parrot Pionus senilis vs. White-fronted Parrot Amazona albifrons

b. Red-capped Parrot Purpureicephalus spurius vs. Red-crowned Parrot Amazona viridigenalis

c. Red-winged Parrot Aprosmictus erythropterus vs. Orange-winged Parrot Amazona amazonica

d. Turquoise Parrot Neophema pulchella vs. Turquoise-fronted Parrot Amazona aestiva

Global alignment

There are 32 species of Amazona, according to NACC and SACC taxonomy (followed by Clements et al.); other taxonomies have recognized additional species, with splits in Mealy Parrot Amazona farinosa and Red-lored Parrot Amazona autumnalis currently being the most widely embraced.

If accepted, each of the names below would change to xx Amazon (e.g., Festive Amazon, Vinaceous-breasted Amazon, etc.).

Scientific Name	English Name	NACC	SACC
Amazona festiva	Festive Parrot		x
Amazona vinacea	Vinaceous-breasted Parrot		x
Amazona tucumana	Tucuman Parrot		x
Amazona pretrei	Red-spectacled Parrot		x
Amazona viridigenalis	Red-crowned Parrot	x
Amazona finschi	Lilac-crowned Parrot	x
Amazona autumnalis	Red-lored Parrot	x	x
Amazona dufresniana	Blue-cheeked Parrot		x
Amazona rhodocorytha	Red-browed Parrot		x
Amazona arausiaca	Red-necked Parrot	x
Amazona martinicana	Martinique Parrot	x
Amazona versicolor	St. Lucia Parrot	x
Amazona auropalliata	Yellow-naped Parrot	x
Amazona oratrix	Yellow-headed Parrot	x
Amazona ochrocephala	Yellow-crowned Parrot	x	x
Amazona barbadensis	Yellow-shouldered Parrot		x
Amazona aestiva	Turquoise-fronted Parrot		x
Amazona agilis	Black-billed Parrot	x
Amazona albifrons	White-fronted Parrot	x
Amazona xantholora	Yellow-lored Parrot	x
Amazona collaria	Yellow-billed Parrot	x
Amazona leucocephala	Cuban Parrot	x
Amazona ventralis	Hispaniolan Parrot	x
Amazona vittata	Puerto Rican Parrot	x
Amazona farinosa	Mealy Parrot	x	x
Amazona kawalli	Kawall's Parrot		x
Amazona imperialis	Imperial Parrot	x
Amazona violacea	Guadeloupe Parrot	x
Amazona brasiliensis	Red-tailed Parrot	x
Amazona guildingii	St. Vincent Parrot	x
Amazona amazonica	Orange-winged Parrot		x
Amazona mercenarius	Scaly-naped Parrot	x

A simple YES (strongly recommended) or NO vote would suffice, with rationale provided if a NO vote.

Marshall Iliff, July 2024

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Comments from Remsen: “YES. The world is “voting with its feet”, or fingers in this case, and I see no point in being an outlier and plenty of disadvantages. More importantly, having a 1-1 match between genus name and group name has lots of positives, as Marshall outlined in the proposal.”

Comments from Zimmer: “YES” for all of the reasons summarized my Marshall in the Proposal.”

Comments solicited from Peter Kaestner: “As a non-voting comment, I too would support Marshall’s proposal to use the moniker “Amazon” for the parrots in the genus Amazona.”

Comments from Rasmussen (voting for Robbins): “I definitely think "Amazon" is the way to go here, for all the reasons stated in the proposal. The only reason I can see not to do so is that by no means are all found anywhere near the Amazon, but that carries little weight in my view especially given the genus name.”

Comments from Josh Beck: “YES. I think it makes sense and is good to align with other uses and good to highlight the grouping of these species / help people clue in on Amazona species by flight style and voice. I personally am not bothered about aligning with the aviculture trade, and while the general public likely won't know what an Amazon is, they also are not likely to know that the name exists, and the general name of parrot will continue to serve just as well for anything that looks like a parrot.”

Comments from Don Roberson: “I'm an enthusiastic "YES" for all the reasons outlined by Marshall. In fact, I'd thought that change had been years ago.

“I think it is wise to do what reasonably can be done to reduce the numerous English names that involve "warblers", "flycatchers", "parrots," and other words that span multiple unrelated bird families globally. There are 4-5 families of "parrots," six or so families of "flycatchers," and 10 or more families with English-named "warblers." In the vast majority of situations, stability in English names will (and should) prevent widespread, disruptive changes, but this proposal easily passes the test, even for Mexican species of Amazona that (presumably) would require NACC adoption.

“It will also serve as precedent that when changing an English name to better reflect the formal scientific name (e.g., adoption of Schiffornis and many others) it is not required that the English name (Amazon) exactly match the Code name (Amazona). Further, once adopted, it becomes stable, and not dependent on changing taxonomic revisions (e.g., Elaenia applies to both the genera Elaenia and Myiopagis). Although of almost no concern to SACC, might there come a day when the flycatcher genus Empidonax might be renamed, in English, to "Empid" instead of "Flycatcher," or if that is too slangy, "Gnat-Tyrants"? [The late, great Rich Stallcup liked to call them "gnat-kings", from the Greek root of Empidonax.] Such of change would finally remedy the global problem of having two Dusky Flycatchers and two Gray Flycatchers in the world. The current global checklist compromise of tacking on "African" to the Old World taxa is not an actual solution. But turning back to parrots that may become Amazons, will there come a time when some currently unanticipated split leave the SACC debating whether the English name should be Amazonian Amazon or, more simply, Amazon Amazon. Oh, joie de vire.”

Comments from Jaramillo: “YES. I was going to be a no vote on this largely as a knee jerk reaction to the fact that Amazon is the cage bird trade for them. I am not a fan of the cage bird trade, and dislike the names they use. Conure is just an ugly sounding word, but it is a knee jerk based on the fact that I am not pro wild bird trade in any way.

“But reading the proposal, I see there are benefits, and Marshall is certainly in tune with the issues of incorrect logging of certain parrot species on eBird, and that this may offer a simplified take, where there are fewer parrot species to deal with in South America, as half will then be Amazons. It makes sense. It does not detract in any meaningful way, and people seem to like the name. So I have moved to the yes side.”

Comments from Andrew Spencer (voting for Claramunt): “YES. I very much like having a direct relationship between the genus and a unique group name, especially in a family as diverse as parrots. I've been calling them Amazons for years. I also found that while guiding it was handy to have a term for Amazona parrots when teaching the people I was guiding about parrot ID, and how to narrow the options down quickly. Now if only they were easier to ID to species once narrowed down to genus.”

Comments from Lane: “YES, but reluctantly. I have really seen the use of “Amazon” and other parrot group names such as “Conure” as the cagebird trade’s labels for these parrots, and felt that it was good to separate the names used in the scientific and birding literature from that world. I guess that I was ignoring the fact that I was mostly seeing the AOS NACC/SACC names vs the usage in the rest of the world rather than a difference between bird trade vs science/birding, so I will have to reconsider my views on the names here. In addition, Marshall makes a good point about the adoption of Amazon to “loosen up” constraints on availability of names that might otherwise compete with other “Parrot” spp elsewhere.”

Comments from Stiles: “YES. I will go along with Amazon as an E-name for the Amazona species it makes a lot of sense in various ways (and is on the whole, OK in Spanish as well.