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Home , Bolborhynchus, Cuban amazon, Cuban parakeet, Enicognathus, Golden parakeet, Hapalopsittaca

COTINGA 5 Priorities for conservation in the

Nigel J. Collar

Targeting threatened Two mainly lowland amazons, Yellow-headed In terms of numbers of species at risk, Amazona oratrixE and -cheeked A. represent the most challenging of viridigenalisE, have particularly suffered the dou­ on earth. A recent review3 identified 11% of the ble impact of loss and persecution for global avifauna as threatened and 9% as near- trade. The Yellow-head has much the larger threatened, but analysis of the parrots alone14 range, on both seaboards of through Gua­ shows th at 24% (85) of the planet’s 356-odd spe­ temala into Belize (the Green-cheek is confined cies are at risk of , with a further 10% to the Atlantic lowlands and foothills from Nuevo (36) near-threatened. León to Veracruz), but The situation gets has suffered much the worse when the New severer decline (90% in World component is iso­ the past 20 ), being lated: Collar et a l.3 renowned in trade circles identified 39 parrots as the best of all (28% of the Neotropical “talkers”. These species complement of around urgently need well- 140) at risk, rising to 44 defended reserves, sym­ (31%) when new infor­ pathetic management on mation and new criteria non-reserve land, and were brought to bear in intensive efforts to elimi­ Collar et al.4. This is a nate trade at both local situation whose gravity, and international levels. in terms of proportion of The two Rhyncho- species threatened, is p sitta species, which only approached by one are in fact highly other Neotropical fam­ modified , occ­ ily, the cracids6, and in upy montane forest both cases it results Spix’s Cyanopsitta spixii, the rarest in the world (L C. in the Sierra Madre from the enhancement Marigo / BirdLife) Occidental (Thick-billed of the effects of habitat Parrot R. pachyrhynchaE) destruction by direct human exploitation5. Here and Oriental (Maroon-fronted Parrot R. terrisiV). I outline the key species to target for immediate Their dependence on pine cones, which fructify action, based on the above sources. Superscript in different quantities from to year, makes letters C, E and V refer respectively to the new them especially susceptible to the effects of habi­ IUCN categories of Critically Endangered, En­ tat loss, because the food resource, already dangered and Vulnerable, as applied by Collar patchy in both time and space, then becomes et al.4. even patchier and more energetically expensive to locate. Thick-bills’ dependence on holes in Middle America dead snags makes their plight all the worse; Mexico is the key country in this region, hosting Maroon-fronts’ use of cliffs allows them greater six threatened species, four of which are wholly breeding security in the short term but perhaps endemic. less overall flexibility, so that they may suffer The Socorro brevipesV, con­ even more if the forests in which they feed when fined to forest above 500 m on Isla Socorro in breeding are all cleared. The primary need for the Pacific, may number only 400–500 individu­ both is to control and rationalise pinewood ex­ als, but should benefit from increasing national traction and to preserve any remaining tracts of and international interest in the conservation mature forest. of biological diversity in the Revillagigedos Penetrating the Thick-bills’ habitat from be­ group. low is the militarisV, which

26 COTINGA 5 Priorities for parrot conservation

(as considered here) includes A. ambigua (Great al.11, Evans7, Butler2 and Rojas-Suárez10 has pro­ Green Macaw) and which extends patchily vided major insights into the way small island through (Honduras, Nicaragua, ranges compound the effects of direct and indi­ Costa Rica and Panama) into rect man-made threats to parrots, and outline (parts of , , , the appropriate management responses. The and ). Populations of this bird are all now result is that the species on the smallest islands, extremely localised and small, often subject to or the species with the smallest populations, are substantial, albeit barely recognised, annual perhaps now of less immediate concern than movements; habitat loss (in particular the recent some of the wider-ranging birds on the larger exploitation of the extra-hard Dipteryx trees islands: a general ornithological survey of which the species uses both for food and breed­ , and in particular the Dominican Re­ ing) and the poaching of nestlings are major public, is long overdue, and parrot-specific status threats. work on and , although under way, deserves augmentation from every visiting birdwatcher with time to spare. The identifica­ The islands of the Caribbean have been and re­ tion of conservable areas (some perhaps already main a disaster area for parrots. Wiley13 inside parks and reserves) is an urgent priority enumerated a minimum 28 species from the re­ for these species. gion at the time of Columbus’s arrival, of which This is not, of course, to invite complacency only 12 are still extant. Of these no fewer than over the Puerto Rican and Lesser Antillean ama­ eight are now at risk of extinction, four in the zons. These birds can only survive in the long ( A ratinga term through the continuing commitment of peo­ euopsV on Cuba, A. ple and funds to current programmes of active chloropteraV in the and management. , Black-billed Amazon Amazona agilisV on Jamaica, and A. vittataC Andes on ) and four, all amazons, in the Upland South America makes for the most het­ Lesser (St Lucia A. versicolorV, St Vincent A. erogeneous grouping of threatened parrots, g u ild in g iiV and Dominica’s Red-necked A. involving seven genera. Colombia is particularly arausiacaV and Im p erial A. imperialisV). important, with four species entirely within its Moreover, three of the remaining four are near-threatened, and there is a thirteenth threatened species, the much-trapped Yellow­ shouldered Amazon A. barbadensisV, occupying the Dutch island of Bonaire and Venezue­ la’s Margarita and La Blanquilla, but also found in low numbers in remote arid wood­ lands on the adjacent m ainland. Some of these birds have, however, been well studied, and in­ deed our knowledge of parrot conservation techniques at the global level is dominated by Caribbean experience. Work by (e.g.) Snyder et Rusty-faced Parrot amazonina (Jon Fjeldså)

27 COTINGA 5 Priorities for parrot conservation borders — P yrrhura north-west Ecuador; the Golden-plumed Para­ viridicataV (only in the Sierra Nevada, whose for­ k eet Leptosittaca branickiiV, an apparent ests have been massively compromised by a specialist on Podocarpus cones and therefore fac­ drugs war), Flame-winged Parakeet P. callipteraV ing the same danger of space/time patchiness of (a tree-limit/páramo species whose few remain­ food th at threatens Mexico’s par­ ing populations face decline as trees are cleared), rots, extends through the upland forest zones of Rufous-fronted Parakeet fer- Ecuador into northern Peru, as does (very patch­ rugineifronsE (another treeline/páramo species ily) the Spot-winged stictopteraV losing out to habitat loss including grass burn­ which, although probably under-recorded, occu­ ing and overgrazing) and Fuertes’s Parrot pies the upper tropical and lower subtropical Hapalopsittaca fuertesiC (always very rare and forest zone, much coveted by man for its climate now known from a single small reserve). These and agricultural potential. four parrots will best be conserved by the full In addition, Ecuador hosts two endemic implementation of protection for four reserves, threatened upland parrots and one shared (only respectively: Santa Marta National Park, just) with Peru. These are, respectively, the El Chingaza National Park and adjacent private Oro Parakeet orcesiV (a denizen of up­ reserves, Los Nevados National Park and the per tropical forest on the already largely denuded Alto Quindío Reserve. lower Pacific slopes), White-necked Parakeet P. Colombia shares four more threatened up­ albipectusV (a very local creature, known from land species with its neighbours. The extremely three general areas up to around 2000 m) and local Rusty-faced Parrot Hapalopsittaca amaz- Red-faced Parrot Hapalopsittaca pyrrhopsE (an oninaE extends from the north-east of the country upper-edge cloud-forest species confined to a few into Venezuela, while the recently unfindable areas in the south-west of the country). Peru pos­ Yellow-eared Parrot Ognorhynchus icterotisC, sesses just one additional species, the which is believed to specialise on Colombia’s Yellow-faced Parrotlet xanthopsV, confined national tree, the wax palm Ceroxylon to dry woodland in the upper Marañón valley quindiuense, itself on the verge of extinction, goes and the only species in the entire Andean com­ (or once went) in the opposite direction into plement to be seriously affected by trade (all

Red-fronted Macaw Ara rubrogenys (Jon Fjeldså)

28 COTINGA 5 Priorities for parrot conservation

apparently to supply national demand). Bolivia wards (not fully attributable to habitat loss) from possesses another: the Red-fronted Macaw Ara Argentina, and southern , its rubrogenysE of the arid intermontane valleys of main strongholds and key areas for protection Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and Chuquisaca has now being the Serra Negra in Pernambuco and certainly suffered in the recent past from trade, the Serra do Cachimbo in Pará. but now faces threats from habitat loss and lo­ Further yet into the interior of eastern Bra­ cal disturbance within its restricted range. zil and the focus switches to perhaps the most (Bolivia of course possesses a second endemic dramatically beautiful of all parrots: the blue macaw, dealt with below.) macaws. The most celebrated, listed in the Guin­ ness book of records 1996 as the rarest bird in the Lowland South America world, is the highly distinctive Spix’s Macaw In theory, lowland areas of South America ought Cyanopsitta spixiiC, of which a single individual not to hold large numbers of threatened parrots, survived in its only known haunts, caraiba wood­ since unlike in the Andes or the Caribbean there land along seasonal creeks in arid northern are relatively few features to confine strong-fly­ , until in 1995 a wild-caught captive bird ing, wide-ranging to areas small was released in the hope of breeding with it. A enough to render them obviously susceptible to committee of Brazilian authorities and captive extinction. In practice, however, there is the At­ owners now presides over the future of this spe­ lantic Forest, reduced over five centuries of cies, but the total failure of attempts to introduce settlement to tiny (yet still declining) fragments captive-bred Thick-billed Parrots into Arizona of its former glory, and there is trade, whittling (captive-bred birds are incapable of recognising away at populations of species even while the food or predators and die within hours of release) habitat (in a few places) remains ostensibly in­ has demonstrated the unconditional necessity of tact. The focus in both cases is Brazil. returning all captive-held wild-caught Spix’s The Atlantic Forest once ran from the north­ Macaws to their native habitat as soon as hu­ eastern seaboard of Brazil in Alagoas and manly possible if there is to be any genuine hope Pernambuco south through Bahia, , for the species’s ultimate recovery. Espírito Santo and Rio de Janeiro into São Paulo Almost adjacent to the site where the Spix’s and Paraná, where a subtle shift to what is some­ saga is unfolding, the next-most threatened Bra­ times called Paranaense forest occurs, this zilian parrot, Lear’s Macaw extending into Rio Grande do Sul and through leariC, struggles for survival against the impact adjacent eastern Paraguay and the province of of food-plant (licuri palm) clearance in a hand­ Misiones in Argentina. Four species — Brown- ful of small, highly vulnerable cliff colonies, one backed Touit melanonotaE and Golden-tailed of them only discovered in 1995 (see Neotropical T. su rd a E, Blue-chested Parakeet News, this issue). Vigilance against trappers and Pyrrhura cruentataV and Red-browed Amazon long-term management of farmland over a wide Amazona rhodocorythaE — are confined to the area around nest-sites are essential investments northern half of this belt. Two species — the Red­ in this bird’s future. Its close relative, the Glau­ tailed A. brasiliensisE and the Red-spectacled cous Macaw A. glaucus, has already been lost, Amazons A. pretreiE — only occur in the southern almost certainly in part owing to the elimina­ half, the former replacing its close relative tion over much of its range of yatay palms. This rhodocorytha in coastal São Paulo and Paraná, bird once penetrated the Atlantic Forest region the latter being virtually endemic to Rio Grande as far as the coast of Santa Catarina, and bred do Sul. Two species — the Vinaceous Amazon A. in cliffs at Caçapava do Sul, Rio Grande do Sul vinaceaE and the very curious Blue-bellied Par­ (a site now of critical importance for Red-specta­ rot Triclaria malachitaceaE — extend much more cled Amazon), but was recorded over a wide area widely (from Bahia to Misiones, the former also embracing north-west Uruguay, southern Para­ into eastern Paraguay), but are everywhere in guay and northern Argentina. doubtfully viable numbers. The A. hyacinthinusV origi­ In the drier western fringes of the Atlantic nally occupied much of the region that separates Forest and associated outliers, the beautiful the ranges of Lear’s and Glaucous, and doubt­ Golden-capped Parakeet Aratinga auricapillaV less these three were mutually exclusive. The hangs on in the face of persistent attrition of its Hyacinth, largest parrot in the world and a purer habitat. In similar wise the Blue-winged Macaw blue than any other, has suffered from massive Ara maracanaV has been in steady retreat north­ exploitation for trade in the past 20 years, such

29 COTINGA 5 Priorities for parrot conservation

that as few as 3000 individuals may now sur­ in question is very substantial, or unless habi­ vive throughout its vast range from the wetlands tat management over large adjacent areas is fringing Paraguay and Bolivia north to Piauí and simultaneously implemented. This then raises west into the more open parts of the Amazonian the much larger problem of the zonation of natu­ in Pará. Status surveys in these poorly ral habitat utilisation and all the other interests explored north-western areas (including Amapá) that legitimately bear on such processes; but it are required; but several independent studies is a nettle that one day will have to be grasped. have recently begun to shed light on the species’s Another such nettle is the problem of trade. ecology and management needs in the . It remains entirely unresolved whether its con­ At the north-westernmost edges of the Hya­ tinuing legality simply stimulates the growth of cinth’s range there occurs the species Helmut covert systems of exploitation, or whether its Sick wanted to see become the national bird of total outlawing would make the monitoring of Brazil owing to its yellow and green : that exploitation all the harder while at the same the Guaruba guaroubaE of terra time depriving developing countries of a source firme rainforest in Maranhão, Pará and (from a of income and of the stimulus to manage their remarkable recent record) Rondônia. This won­ sustainably. However, a reduction in derful suffers from both habitat loss and trade levels generally in the Americas, and for high pressure (for domestic consump­ species such as Red-masked Parakeet Aratinga tion), and is difficult to conserve owing to an erythrogenys and Grey-cheeked Parakeet apparently nomadic habit, which confounds at­ pyrrhopterus in particular (see1), is tempts to identify key areas for its survival. The highly desirable. The kind of campaign needed problem of nomadism also afflicts the Yellow­ to bring this about can be mounted at local, na­ faced Amazon Amazona xanthopsV, a tional and international levels, and will endemic which penetrates into eastern Bolivia integrate well with education and awareness and northern Paraguay and whose habitat has initiatives aiming at the creation of appropriate endured a staggering 60–70% conversion to ag­ conditions for site and/or species management riculture in the past 20 years. programmes. Outside Brazil there are only three threat­ In-depth ecological study of any parrot is ened parrots in lowland South America. Two, the likely to produce insights into the biology of rarer Military Macaw and Yellow-shouldered Amazon, congeners, but clearly the more the truly prob­ have already been mentioned. The third is the lematic species are targeted for such work the Blue-throated Macaw Ara glaucogularisE, a better. Birdwatchers can always help by mak­ very few of which were recently located in a for­ ing their records available or even by est-savanna mosaic in northern Bolivia, and undertaking their own (self-paid) status surveys, which face permanent danger from trapping so long as these conform with the laws and interests. protocols of the host nations. The important thing always to bear in mind is that all such field­ Next steps work needs to be done in ways that can easily be There is no shortage of parrots in need of sup­ replicated, because the longevity of parrots, and port in the Americas. With 44 formally listed as their between-year differences in resource ex­ threatened, another 12 near-threatened (Appen­ ploitation, mean that long-term monitoring and dix 1), and 17 of otherwise low risk data-collection are essential to the confidence species also classifiable as threatened or near- with which their conservation can be prescribed. threatened (Appendix 2), there is a great deal to accomplish. References The primary objective must be the preserva­ 1. Best, B. J., Krabbe, N., Clarke, C. T. & Best, tion of key sites for the threatened species, and A. L. (1995) Red-masked Parakeet Aratinga a fully rationalised blueprint for this already erythrogenys and Grey-cheeked Parakeet exists in Wege & Long12. The value of this book Brotogeri s pyrrhopterus: two threatened par­ in providing the basis for bird species conserva­ rots from Tumbesian Ecuador and Peru? tion in the Neotropics cannot be overemphasised. Bird Conserv. Internatn. 5: 233–250. Nevertheless, parrots represent a particular 2. Butler, P. J. (1992) Parrots, pressures, peo­ challenge owing to their often wide-ranging for­ ple, and pride. Pp. 25–46 in S. R. Beissinger aging behaviour, which means that site & N. F. R. Snyder, eds. New World parrots in protection may be insufficient unless the “site” crisis: solutions from conservation biology.

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Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution 13.Wirth, R., Collar, N. J., Crosby, M. J. & Press. Stattersfield, A. J. (1994) The conservation 3. Collar, N. J., Gonzaga, L. P., Krabbe, N., of globally threatened parrots. Pp. 108–132 Madroño Nieto, A., Naranjo, L. G., Parker, in Proceedings of III International Parrot T. A. & Wege, D. C. (1992) Threatened birds Convention (“Parrots Today”), , of the Americas: the ICBP/IUCN Red Data Puerto de la Cruz, , 14–17 Septem­ Book. Cambridge, U.K.: International Coun­ ber 1994. cil for Bird Preservation. 4. Collar, N. J., Crosby, M. J. & Stattersfield, A. Nigel J. Collar J. (1994) Birds to watch 2: the world list of BirdLife International, Wellbrook Court, Girton threatened birds. Cambridge, U.K.: BirdLife Road, Cambridge CB3 0NA, U.K. International (BirdLife Conservation Series 4). 5. Collar, N. J. & Juniper, A. T. (1992) Dimen­ Appendix 1. Near-threatened species of Neotropical sions and causes of the parrot conservation parrot (taken from Collar et al. 1994).

crisis. Pp. 1–24 in S. R. Beissinger & N. F. R. Red-masked Parakeet Aratinga erythrogenys (Ecuador, Peru) Snyder, eds. New World parrots in crisis: so­ Rose-headed Parakeet Pyrrhura rhodocephala (Venezuela) lutions from conservation biology. Washing­ Slender-billed Parakeet leptorhynchus (Chile) ton, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. Grey-cheeked Parakeet Brotogeris pyrrhopterus (Ecuador, Peru) 6. Collar, N. J., Wege, D. C. & Long, A. J. ([sub­ Amazonian Parrotlet dachilleae (Peru) mitted 1995]) Patterns and causes of endan- Red-fronted Parrotlet Touit costaricensis (Costa Rica, Panama) Pionopsitta pileata (Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay) germent in the New World avifauna. Orn. Amazona leucocephala (Bahamas, , Monogr. Cuba) 7. Evans, P. G. H. (1991) Status and conserva­ Yellow-billed Amazon Amazona collada (Jamaica) tion of Imperial and Red-necked Parrots Amazona ventralis (Dominican Republic, Haiti) Amazona imperialis and A. arausiaca on Lilac-crowned Amazon Amazona finschi (Mexico) Dominica. Bird Conserv. Internatn. 1: 11–32. Blue-cheeked Amazon Amazona dufresniana (French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela) 8. ICBP (1992) Putting on the map: priority areas for global conservation. Cam­ bridge, U.K.: International Council for Bird Appendix 2. Threatened and near-threatened Preservation. subspecies of (the former excluding 9. Rojas-Suárez, F. (1994) [Three papers on subspecies of already threatened or near-threatened Amazona barbadensis on M argarita in] G. species) (taken from Wirth et al.14). Morales, I. Novo, D. Bigio, A. Luy & F. Rojas- Critical Suárez, eds. Biología y conservación de los Pyrrhura picta coerulescens psitácidos de Venezuela. Caracas: no pub­ Aratinga acuticaudata neoxena lisher. Endangered 10. Snyder, N. F. R., Wiley, J. W. & Kepler, C. B. Pyrrhura picta subandina Pyrrhura picta caeruleiceps (1987) The parrots of Luquillo: the natural Pyrrhura picta pantchenkoi history and conservation of the Puerto Rican Pyrrhura picta eisenmanni Parrot. Los Angeles: Western Foundation of Pyrrhura leucotis griseipectus Vertebrate Zoology. menstruus reichenowi 11. Wege, D. C. & Long, A. J. (1995) Key Areas for Amazona autumnalis lilacina threatened birds in the Neotropics. Cam­ Vulnerable bridge, U.K.: BirdLife International Aratinga mitrata alticola Aratinga nana nana (BirdLife Conservation Series 5). monachus luchsi 12. Wiley, J. W. (1991) Status and conservation Cyanoliseus patagonus byroni of parrots and in the Greater An­ Pyrrhura leucotis pfrimeri tilles, Bahama Islands, and Cayman Is­ Pyrrhura leucotis leucotis lands. Bird Conserv. Internatn. 1: 187–214. Near-threatened Brotogeris cyanoptera gustavi Amazona ochrocephala xantholaema

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