Amazona aestiva
This watercolour by Peter Paillou depicts a bird historically known as the Parrot of St Thomas, a name that reflects the naming conventions of 18th Century natural history illustration rather than the bird’s true origins. Despite its Caribbean-sounding title, the subject is in fact the Turquoise-fronted Amazon (Amazona aestiva), a parrot native to the forests of Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.
Description of The Parrot of St Thomas
The Turquoise-fronted Amazon is one of the most recognisable Amazon parrots, distinguished by rich green plumage offset by a vivid blue forehead and sun-yellow markings across the face and crown. Its underlying feathers show subtle variation in shade from bird to bird, giving individuals a distinct character that early naturalists would have observed closely when working from life or from specimens. In the wild, these birds favour the upper canopy of lowland forest and woodland edge, where they feed on a varied diet of seeds, fruit, nuts and blossoms, moving in pairs or small flocks and communicating with loud, far-carrying calls.
About The Tuquoise-Fronted Amazon
Turquoise-fronted Amazons nest in natural tree hollows, typically laying between three and five eggs per clutch, and are known for their long lifespans and strong pair bonds. Their intelligence, vocal ability and vibrant colouring have long made them one of the most popular parrot species kept in captivity, which likely explains how a bird native to South America came to be associated with the Caribbean island of St Thomas in the historical record, quite possibly through the pet trade of the period rather than any natural range on the island itself. The species remains widely kept today, though wild populations face ongoing pressure from habitat loss and capture for trade.
Paillou’s watercolour captures this striking combination of colour and character with the close observational detail typical of 18th Century ornithological art, a period in which illustrators worked to record species with scientific accuracy for the benefit of collectors and naturalists rather than for artistic display alone. As part of the Taylor White Collection, the work sits alongside other studies of birds, botanicals and mammals commissioned in the same period, offering a window into how naturalists of the time observed, recorded and classified the natural world, often working from imported specimens, traded birds or written accounts rather than direct observation in the wild. The collection as a whole reflects both the scientific curiosity and the occasional confusion, as with this parrot’s misleading name, that characterised natural history in the era before modern taxonomy and global communication made such misattributions rarer.
c.1720 - c.1790
Peter Paillou (c.1712-1782) was a natural history painter of Huguenot descent, born in London to a family that had emigrated from France in the previous century. He trained under the London painter Jacob Tribble before establishing himself as an animal and bird painter. Following Charles Collins's death in 1744, Paillou took over as the principal artist for the naturalist and collector Taylor White, contributing well over 100 signed watercolours of birds, mammals and reptiles, with many more attributed to him on stylistic grounds. He continued to paint for other patrons throughout his career, including the naturalist Thomas Pennant, whose zoological illustrations Paillou supplied for British Zoology and Arctic Zoology, and was later elected a member of the Society of Artists, exhibiting watercolours of birds in London. Paillou died in 1782.
Credit: Taylor White Collection, Rare Books & Special Collections, McGill University Library.