Yellow-headed Amazon parrots are stocky parrots with mostly green plumage. The head, throat and thighs are yellow; the hooked beak is grey; the iris is orange and the eye ring is whitish. They have a red patch on their wings and the flight feathers are dark blue tipped. The otherwise green tail is yellow tipped. Their feet are zygodactyly – two toes pointing forward and two pointing backward. The positioning of their toes are highly adapted for grasping.