Amazon Hybrids

Among Southern California’s wild parrots are those who are hybrids. They are unique in appearance and follow no identification standards. In many cases, they exhibit characteristics of both parents, however, there are also those hybrids who show no obvious signs — meaning they strongly resemble one parent’s species or the other. Without absolute knowledge of their parentage, they go undetected. This page is dedicated to those of known parentage and those who are obvious hybrids.

It is important to note that in the midst of all generalized descriptions of each parrot species, variations occur. This should always be considered when trying to determine if a wild parrot is a hybrid or a species variation. Within our local Amazona flock, there are mixed mated pairs of all species.

One of the most common hybrids among California’s wild Amazona flocks are the Red-crowned/Lilac-crowned hybrids. These two species are closely related but with distinctive characteristics.

The male hybrid shown at the top of this page on the left is a Turquoise-fronted/Red-crowned Amazon hybrid of known parentage. His father is a Turquoise-fronted Amazon and his mother, a Red-crowned Amazon.

The hybrid pictured on the right is of unknown parentage, but could be related to the mixed mated pair above.