Puerto Rican Parrot - 2009 breeding-season update
By Charlie • May 27, 2009 • 3 commentsWhen we ran our Parrot Month in January, one of my most pleasant surprises was discovering how willing some experts in the ‘parrot-field’ were to provide us with information, allowing us to reproduce their articles, photographs and data etc. Leading conservationists like Jamie Gilardi of the World Parrot Trust and Stewart Metz of the Indonesian Parrot Project patiently answered my somewhat naive questions in interviews, and Ricardo Valentin, Aviary Operations Coordinator at the Vivaldi (or Rio Abajo) Aviary in Utuado, Puerto Rico, gave us a superb account of the Puerto Rican Parrot which - I think I’m right in saying - contained the most up to date information on the internet concerning this Critically Endangered species.
Five months on and we’re in Puerto Rico Month, so of course I mailed Ricardo to ask whether he might be able to give us an update on this year’s breeding season. I’m extremely grateful to Ricardo - who is obviously a very busy man! - for mailing me back with the following data (which I’ve posted after a very short history of the decline of the parrot’s population): once again I can only thank him for allowing us to post such ‘hot off the press’ information so soon after it became available…
The Puerto Rican Parrot Amazona vittata
In prehistoric times the Puerto Rican Parrot Amazona vittata vittata (fledgling left, photo copyright Ricardo Valentin) was abundant and widespread throughout Puerto Rico, and was also found on the islands of Culebra, Vieques and Mona. It has been estimated that at the time of arrival of Columbus (apparently on November 19, 1493) the island had a population of between a hundred thousand and a million Puerto Rican Parrots.
The population of Puerto Rican Parrots had started to decline by the middle of the 19th century, when the human population started to grow significantly and to deforest large parts of the island. At the start of the 20th century only a remnant population survived in the west (in the Rio Abajo – Guajataca area) with the rest of the population in the east of the island. In 1937 it was estimated that around 2000 parrots lived in the 28,000 acre (19,650 hectare) Caribbean National Forest, known locally as El Yunque.
By 1950 the population had fallen and it was clear there were no more than 200 parrots left. However even in the middle of the sixties it was still possible to see 70 parrots in a flock. Unfortunately in the 1970s the population suffered a catastrophic collapse, and in the 1975 breeding season only thirteen adults could be counted in the forest.” (From our previous post: The Puerto Rican Parrot)
Update on the 2009 breeding season: May 2009
Ricardo Valentin, Aviary Operations Coordinator at the Vivaldi/Rio Abajo Aviary
In the Rio Abajo Aviary the breeding season is nearing its end and we are waiting for the last egg to hatch, we expect the chick to hatch between tomorrow and Thursday. If this chick hatches successfully we will have ended the season with thirty chicks. That will put the 2009 season among the three top breeding seasons ever. Two of our chicks hatched in the wild in the Yunque forest in the Libertad nest and fledged a few days ago. Three of the wild pairs in RA attempted to nest and two of them are brooding eggs right now.
Amazingly one of the pairs nested right in the center of the aviary. This particular pair has become very familiar with the training we give the captive breeding pairs to accept nest checks since they witnessed the nest checks during the breeding season (and have become very proficient at harassing and vexing the aviculturist) and are not unduly disturbed by our activity near the nest as they know what we are doing. We are keeping all our appendages crossed in the hope that these two nests will succeed.
I am enclosing a photo of the pair that is nesting inside the grounds of the aviary. In the photo they are standing on top of the cage of a breeding pair and are scolding me because I am opening and checking the captive pair’s nest.
The wild population in the Yunque forest produced seven chicks, the Iguaca aviary at Luquillo has seven chicks.
If the RA wild pairs, the Iguaca aviary and a wild pair that seems to be trying to nest in Luquillo produce more babies we might end up producing close to fifty fledglings for the 2009 season.
We expect all our birds to have fledged by August at that date they will be moved to the cages that surround the Hurricane Shelter building.
The current population of the RA aviary stands at 140 birds, the wild population in the Rio Abajo forest is close to thirty. The wild population in the Luquillo forest is about thirty, the population of the Iguaca aviary is 95. So the current total world population of the Puerto Rican Parrot stands at around 295 birds.
Photos and text copyright Ricardo Valentin, used with permission.
- Like to see what else we’ve posted for ‘Puerto Rico Month’? Just click http://10000birds.com/tag/puerto-rico-month
- If you live in Puerto Rico or have visited PR and would like to contribute photos or a guest post (return traffic to your blog/website should be good, folks) then please mail charlie10000birds AT gmail DOT com
How would you and a partner/friend like to win a 5 day ‘Endemic Dash’ around Puerto Rico with Kevin Loughlin’s WildSide Nature Tours?
You would? Read on…
Kevin (whose photographs of Puerto Rican Woodpecker and Green-throated Carib grace this post) has been organising trips to the Caribbean for many years and is generously offering two places on an Endemic Dash, one of his popular short trips around Puerto Rico on which participants will be taken to see as many of the island’s endemics as possible.
The Tour starts in San Juan - so you’ll need to get there (flights are frequent and cheap from many major US cities) - but all guiding fees, accommodations, ground 
transportation, and meals from dinner on day of arrival through breakfast on day of departure are included!
That would normally cost two people around 2500USD - enter and win and it’ll cost you just your passport fees, airport taxes, alcoholic beverages, laundry, phone calls or anything else of a purely personal nature! Which - if you go easy on the celebratory beers, wear the same socks for a few days, and keep short the gloating phone calls to your jealous mates back home - really won’t amount to very much at all…
We’ll be posting more info about this fantastic competition during Puerto Rico Month - yes, okay, not posting the questions now is our way of making sure you come back to visit us, but why would you want to miss some truly exceptional photographs of Puerto Rico’s endemics and some of the most up-to-date info on Puerto Rico’s biodiversity on the net anyway?
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[...] at Puerto Rican Todies and Puerto Rican Lizard Cuckoos and maybe, just maybe the highly endangered Puerto Rican Parrot (as well as other incredible species that don’t carry the descriptor “Puerto [...]
Thanks for this article!!
Last year, my partner and I vacationed in Puerto Rico, staying at the Hilton in San Juan. We enjoyed a day-long excursion in El Yunque during our stay.
On our final morning, while enjoying breakfast and coffee on our 10th-floor balcony, I spied something in the distance flying towards us. We both stood and watched as a Puerto Rican Amazon got closer and flew past our balcony coming as close as 20 feet. It was an incredible site!
We both were so moved by it that we have since acquired birds, have joined the WPT, and work with our local parrot rescue organization.
Best wishes to those working to restore a viable population for this beautiful bird!
[...] know, sad statistic is that there are only about 295 Puerto Rican Amazons counting both captive and wild populations. But as a nation, we’re pulling it together to [...]