The Yellow-shouldered parrot is an overall green parrot with white forehead and lores. The shoulders, thighs, chin, crown and ear coverts are yellow around bare white orbital patches. There is a bluish tinge on the lower cheeks and around the chin and the flight feathers have a dark blue tip. There are flashes of red on the side of the wings and on the underside of the tail.

During the breeding season the birds form pairs, they nest in hollow trees or tree cavities and the female will lay between 1-4 eggs. When they are not breeding they are highly sociable birds and will form flocks of up to 100 birds.
The Amazon parrot feeds on fruits, including cactus fruits, seeds and flowers depending on the time of year.

The Yellow-shouldered Amazon parrot is widely exploited for trade, nestlings are often taken for pets, they are intelligent, inquisitive and very assertive which does not make for a good pet, once the owner ‘gets bored’ the birds are often neglected and quite often, die.