Kwoj’s

The Puerto Rican Parrot

The Puerto Rican Parrot
Amazona vittata
Cotorra de Puerto Rico – Parrot Call Audio (M. Oberle)

The following information is Quoted directly from Mr. Oberle’s book:

STATUS AND CONSERVATION: The Puerto Rican Parrot was formerly found on Vieques and Culebra. It also lived on the islands of Barbuda and Antigua as well, suggesting that this parrot ranged across the northern Lesser Antilles. This range reduction sadly illustrates a larger pattern: in all of the West Indies there were 50 to 60 species of endemic parrots, parakeets and macaws at about the time humans arrived. Since then all but 12 of those have become extinct.
The Puerto Rican Parrot was common into the nineteenth Century, with a population of perhaps a million birds. The wild population declined to 13 individuals by 1975, and the species is on the Federal endangered species list. Habitat loss, hunting, and the pet trade contributed to the decline. Under aggressive protection, the population recovered to 45-47 birds but then dropped to 21-23 birds after Hurricane Hugo in 1989. In the two nesting seasons after Hurricane Hugo, a record number of young were produced. Although Hurricane Georges passed through El Yunque in 1998, the remaining wild population lived on the western side of El Yunque in valleys that were protected from the strongest winds. Thus, very few parrots were lost in that storm.

Threats to the Puerto Rican Parrot (photo: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) include nest predation by Pearly-eyed Thrashers, Red-tailed Hawks and rats; loss of nest trees and food sources after hurricanes, bot fly infestations of young birds, and aggressive, Africanized bees taking over nest cavities. Aircraft are required to fly more than 2,000 feet above the ground over the Parrots’ breeding area to avoid disrupting nesting. Eventually, interbreeing with introduced parrot species may be a problem: exotic parrots have been seen in the current breeding area in El Yunque and near potential parrot release sites. Conservation measures include improving natural nest cavities by deepening them or adding drainage, or even providing artificial nest cavities. Sometimes providing a nest box for Pearly-eyed Thrashers near a parrot nest will reduce the chances that a thrasher will evict the parrots.

After Hurricane Georges, 3 chicks were produced in the wild in 1999, and 17 in captivity (5 in Luquillo and 12 in Río Abajo) . In contrast, in 1998, 10 chicks were produced in the wild and 14 in captivity (4 in Luquillo and 10 in Río Abajo). The high productivity in the wild in 1998 may reflect abundant food sources, such as Sierra Palms, that had matured a decade after Hurricane Hugo. Female Hispaniolan Parrots are used as foster parents to raise Puerto Rican Parrot chicks in captivity. Captive-raised Hispaniolan Parrots were successfully released in the Dominican Republic in the late 1990s to work out the details of how to release captive-bred parrots into the wild. Ten captive-raised Puerto Rican Parrots were released in June 2000 into El Yunque, to join the current wild flock. An additional 16 were released in May 2001 and 9 in May 2002. Most of these released birds have survived. In early 2003 the population was several dozen birds in the wild, plus 134 in two captive populations at the Luquillo and Río Abajo aviaries. Although only about 15 wild birds were detected in the February 2003 census, an increasing number of sightings have been reported of Puerto Rican Parrots flying outside the census area, including foraging for food on private land outside the National Forest. So the wild population is almost certainly larger than the census results suggest.

A second wild population of Puerto Rican Parrots may be established in the mountains of central Puerto Rico in the early 21st Century (perhaps 2006) to reduce the chances that a single hurricane could wipe out as large a proportion of the wild population as did Hurricane Hugo. The current plan calls for parrots to be released initially near the Río Abajo aviary with the hopes that the birds that remain in the aviary will attract the released parrots and encourage them to remain in the local area rather than randomly disperse to areas where the chances of survival are low.

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