Found A Lost Yellow Headed Amazon (1 Viewer)

Two days ago we discovered a yellow headed amazon in our orchard, feeding on dropped oranges. We placed a cage out there with food and water to try and catch him but no luck yet.

He is hanging around our house though, we have been going out several times a day and feeding him various fruits and seed. I know he must be an escaped pet since he lets us get close enough to feed him from our hand (plus they don't usually live down here)

He is very friendly, but he must be scared and stressed. He is missing all feathers around his neck but his skin looks fine so I'm assuming he is plucking the feathers himself.

Anyway, any tips on helping him? We know he does go into the cage because we can see him nearby eating the fruit. Should I try buying a larger cage? I know they usually live in very large cages so maybe he just thinks its too small? Either way I can't just leave him to fend for himself. I live in south Texas and we already hit 100 degree weather last week.

Any help would be appreciated, Thanks!

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/Aslan89/?action=view&current=YellowHeadedAmazon.jpg

This bird looks very stressed (and even possibly abused). I would try to capture him before a predator gets to him first. Make sure to not only provide food and water, but toys and stimulation if you do catch him.

Carlos

Will do, we have a lovebird, obviously not the same care as a parrot but we have had several birds over the years and plenty of experience. The problem is I don't want to scare him off by trying to capture him. He lets us get close if we hold out food but I doubt he would let us touch him because he tries to stay back.

I have a big net on a pole but I don't want to traumatize him and I can't use it because he usually stays inside one of the grapefruit trees. He has been hanging around here for 3 days though so I'm hoping I can coax him into the cage.

the range for yellow-headed amazons is from mexico to Ecuador and brasil, those climes
i would imagine are very warm which suits "wild" birds the bird you mention as probabily
always had cooler conditions before he escaped he`s perhaps enjoying his freedom
but does need your help certainly as heat exhaustion is going to be a threat to him or her and
even with shade i would imagine along with finding a food source and do you have cold winters too ? i,m not one for caged
birds i do like to see them in open spaces but in these circumstances the bird needs
assistance to escape the extremes of the elements being a bird more adapted to a life cared for by humans unless its species characteristics kicked in allowing it a better chance of survival in the elements they live, thou the chances of this happening are probabily slim in texas does it get hotter than in mexico?
if you cannot capture the bird you could look for somebody reputable who
could take this bird in and take proper care of it .

I would imagine it gets even hotter in Mexico because they are closer to the equator. We don't have them here though and the fact that he will take food from my hand tells me he was definitely a pet.

No luck as of yet, it's not like I can force him into the cage. I just have to catch him at the right moment. I guess I could attempt to capture him with a large live trap but I'll see how this goes first. For now he's being well fed and has water but I doubt he could survive on his own as the only legal way to get one in the U.S. is if someone is selling captive bred ones which means he may not be able to survive on his own in the wild.

i do hope you can help look after this birds welfare as you are doing now he`s lucky that
he has found you to help in his survival the feathers missing around his neck indicate
some issues but being tame he`s accepted you and that has helped his odds somewhat
your doing all you can i,m sure apparently they are one of the best speakers of the
green parrot family pity you can,t start a dialogue with him of some kind it would be good to hear on here all the progress you are makeing with this bird i do try and get on here fairly regular the forum and would enjoy the updates.

We finally got him in the cage! I'm going to go talk to our neighbors tomorrow and see if he is theirs. I know they have parrots because we always hear them squawk and I did here one earlier today but its possible that they had more than one.

Just a little update: He is still frightened and not talking (as in not even squawking) but I think that is because he is in the small cage right now. We ordered a very large cage for him that should be delivered within two days. He probably feels scared and exposed because in that little cage he has no where to go to get away from us. He is still eating just fine though and I went out and bought some good parrot food, liquid vitamins, and toys.

Msking,

It will take time for the bird to gain your trust (i.e. weeks to months) so be patient. It sounds like you are doing all the right things you should be doing. Now that the bird is captive, have you sought help from forums dedicated to pet birds? They might be better able to help you at this stage.

Carlos

Well so far so good, i'm not really looking for help. I was originally posting to see if anyone had tips about how to catch him but we already caught him now.

I was just planning on updating this post at least until I get the big cage set up so I can post a picture and hopefully he will be doing better.