Amazon Parrots are striking birds with many color varieties, and are popular options as pets. But it takes an experienced bird owner to handle the personality and upkeep of one of these birds.

They're social creatures in need of a lot of interaction and attention. So before you choose an Amazon Parrot as a pet, be sure you know everything you'll need to do to properly care for one.

Active and comical, Blue Fronted Amazons are natural performers. They love to be around their owners. Prolific talkers and singers, they vocalize often and can be very loud, so aren't suited to live in close quarters like apartment buildings.

Amazon parrots have a well-earned reputation as being the “life of the party.” These primarily green medium- to large-sized parrots are typically bold, comical and often love to be the center of attention.

Native Region / Natural Habitat

Amazon parrots are from Mexico, South America, as well as parts of the Caribbean. The wild Amazon’s natural habits include savannas, palm groves, scrub forest and rainforest.

Care & Feeding

Most Amazon parrots love to bathe; and bathing opportunities can include joining their owner in the shower, getting a spray bath, or jumping in their water dish and splashing water all about. Bathing is an important part of an Amazon’s feather health. An Amazon parrot needs a spacious cage with toys and swings spread out, as well as a play gym/play tree, climbing rope and/or ladders to scale to encourage movement and exercise.

An Amazon parrot often has a hearty appetite, especially for people food so owners need to make sure that they (and other household members) do not overdo it with treats and table foods. An Amazon parrot’s main diet should consist of a nutritionally balanced manufactured diet, as well as an assortment of healthy vegetables, some fruit and healthy treats that pack nutrition instead of empty calories. Amazon parrots seem to relish the texture of food almost as much as its taste. A properly cared for Amazon parrot that consumes a healthy, nutritionally balanced diet can live up to 60 years.

Personality & Behavior

Amazon parrots typically play hard. An Amazon parrot might swing upside down from the cage, delight in destroying their wooden toys and even wrestle their owner’s hand with their beak. An Amazon parrot’s mood is one of the easiest to read among parrot species because it is excellent at expressing itself through its body language: pinning eyes, raised head/neck feathers, fanned tail feathers and broad stance, for example, indicates a highly excitable Amazon parrot.

An Amazon owner should pay close attention to his or her Amazon parrot’s body language to be fully attuned to the bird’s mood. An excitable Amazon parrot might be telling you that it doesn’t wish to be handled, and failure to recognize this might result in a bite. An Amazon parrot can also go into “play overload” during play, especially when beak wrestling with you. Stop the play session to give your Amazon parrot time to calm down as soon as you see overly excited body language. Male Amazon parrots, are said to be more aggressive than females of their species.

Speech & Sounds

Amazon parrots are one of the better talkers of the parrot world. They seem to be especially fond of music and singing. An Amazon could careless if the song it sings is off-key; it will sing as if it wrote the sing itself. Amazons can learn to speak a many words and phrases and imitate sounds. An Amazon parrot can also be noisy, especially when it wants attention. It can scream loudly and some make a repetitive honk-like sound when they want something. Some Amazons make a little shrill sound to express delight while they eat a favorite treat.