Well, we’re now well into the 2009 wild population breeding season for the Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata), the rarest of the Amazon parrots. It’s been an interesting season so far, with 5 active nests this year (up from 4 the past 2 years), including 2 new breeding pairs and 2 nest sites that had not previously been used. One of the older traditional nest sites that had been used consistently for several years did not have any activity this year, so we have a “net gain” of 1 additional nest. But hey, with so few breeding pairs in the wild, any increase at all is very significant!

Right now, we’ve got 7 chicks in the wild from 4 nests. We had 5 nests, as I said, but as luck (bad, that is!) would have it, one was lost to factors beyond our control. This happened early one morning about 3 weeks ago, when a pack of stray dogs treed a feral cat less than 50 meters from the active nest. The female immediately killed the 2 just-hatched chicks, most likely due to the intense disturbance from all the barking so near the nest. Amazon parrots are generally high-strung, especially during breeding season, and probably none more so than the Puerto Ricans, so we suspect the dogs were a contributing factor. In fact, this had been a rather “tricky” nest from the onset. First, the female laid 2 infertile eggs. This happens from time to time with young pairs their first season. Having no other fertile Puerto Rican eggs at the time that we could use to switch, we opted to place 2 fertile Hispaniolan Parrot (A. ventralis) eggs that were close to hatching in the nest. This would effectively “buy time” until we had a couple of suitable-sized Puerto Rican chicks available from one of the 2 aviaries that we could switch for the Hispaniolans. The main objective was to keep the nest active. Unfortunately, the Hispaniolans were the 2 chicks that were later killed, literally the day they hatched. After this event, the pair promptly abandoned the nest. At that point, we reconciled ourselves to the fact that we had done all within our power, but to no avail.

However, just this morning, we found that not only had the pair returned to the nest site, but the female was once again inside the nest cavity. We’re keeping our fingers crossed on this one, as it is now possible that the pair will re-nest in the same site. Stay tuned…..

Meanwhile….the other 4 nests have produced a total of 9 chicks, 2 of which were moved to the aviary due to illness. One chick has already fledged as of last week, and the remaining 6 should be flying within the next 2 weeks. All are equipped with radio-transmitters, so we will be monitoring closely their movements and survival post-fledging. Again….stay tuned….