Diet and Foraging

Yellow-headed Parrot diet includes buds; new leaves; palm fruits; Acacia seeds; and fruits of Macuna, fig Ficus, Zuelania guidonia, Bumelia laetiveirens, Solanum and Pithecellobium flexicaule; it may also be responsible for damage of crops such as maize, mango and unripe bananas (Juniper and Parr 1998). They have been reported to eat seeds of Astronium graveolens, Crataeva tapia, and Sideroxylon capiri, and fruits of Ficus insipida (Renton 2002). In Tamaulipas, Yellow-headed Parrots frequently consumed the fruit and seeds of the three most common tree species — coma (Bumelia laetevirens), ebony (Pithecellobium ebano), and strangler fig (Ficus cotinifolia), as well as guayabillo (Myrcianthes fragans) and diente de tigre (Wimmeria concolor) (Enkerlin-Hoeflich 1995). They also frequently consumed sosa (Solanum sp.) and mala mujer (Cnidoscolus sp.), two species characteristic of the disturbed vegetation in cattle pasture regions (Enkerlin-Hoeflich 1995). In riparian corridors they consumed Croton niveus (Enkerlin-Hoeflich 1995).