Yellow-shouldered Parrot Amazona barbadensis Scientific name definitions

Ranked as Vulnerable by BirdLife International, the Yellow-shouldered Parrot is mainly green, but has a white forehead and lores, white orbital ring, a yellow crown, chin, and ear coverts, a bluish tinge on the lower cheeks, yellow shoulders and thighs, and a red speculum. In mainland South America this parrot is confined to disjunct areas of north-coastal Venezuela. However, it is also present on the Dutch-owned island of Bonaire, and formerly on Aruba, as well as on the Venezuelan islands of Margarita and La Blanquilla. It inhabits xerophytic vegetation, especially desert areas dominated by cacti and low thorny trees. Its numbers have been severely reduced by the illegal pet trade, both on the islands and the mainland, while the development of tourist facilities and mining activities have destroyed the species’ habitat, and in some areas, it is hunted for allegedly damaging crops.

33 cm. Green with narrow dark edges to feathers giving light scaled effect, bluish tinge on underparts; forehead white shading to yellow on mid-crown and around eye , with light blue suffusion on lower cheeks and chin; shoulder and thighs yellow; speculum red , flight-feathers tipped dark blue. Immature lacks bluish tinge below.

Isolated populations in coastal Venezuela (Falcón to Sucre) and islands of Margarita and La Blanquilla; also W Leeward Antilles on Curaçao (probably feral (2 Forshaw, J. M. (2010). Parrots of the World. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ) ) and Bonaire; extinct on Aruba.

Fruits , seeds and/or flowers of Platymiscum, Pithecellobium, Piptadenia, Piscidia, Bulnesia, Tabebuia, Capparis, Malpighia, Bourreria, Casearia, Guaiacum, Terminalia, Spondias, Moringa, Ziziphus, Caesalpinia, Crotalaria, Acacia, Prosopis, Leucaena, Bursera, Crescentia and various cacti.

A variety of screeches and calls, rather high-pitched. In flight, typically a high-pitched screeching “screeet!”, often trilled or modulated to “scree-ee-ee-eet!”.

Laying since late Mar–early Apr; chicks fledge Jun–Aug (3 Sanz, V. and Rodríguez-Ferraro, A (2006). Reproductive parameters and productivity of the Yellow-shouldered Parrot on Margarita Island, Venezuela: a long-term study. Condor. 108:178–192. Close ). Nest in hole in tree, cactus or cliff. Clutch 1–6 eggs (mean 3·36 eggs, n = 289), size 36·4–37 mm × 25·8–26·3 mm (in captivity) (4 Harrison, C. J. O., and D. T. Holyoak (1970). Apparently undescribed parrot eggs in the collection of the British Museum (Natural History). Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 90(2):42–46. Close ); incubation period 24–30 days (average 27·1 days, n = 175); nestling period 50–66 days (mean 58·5 days, n = 179); 20% of eggs lost because of hatching failure (8%), predation (6%), human perturbation (3%) or nest abandonment (3%), and 49% chicks lost due to poaching (29%) or natural causes including predation (10%) (3 Sanz, V. and Rodríguez-Ferraro, A (2006). Reproductive parameters and productivity of the Yellow-shouldered Parrot on Margarita Island, Venezuela: a long-term study. Condor. 108:178–192. Close ).

VULNERABLE. CITES I. A BirdLife “restricted-range” species. Heavily exploited everywhere for largely internal pet trade, compounded by tourist developments on the islands and other forms of habitat destruction, e.g. mining; other problems include some persecution as a crop pest and occasional island droughts. Population on mainland unknown, but a roost of 700 recorded in 1989. Margarita held 650–800 in late 1980s, rising under management to 914 in 1992, and to 1600 in 2009 (5 Briceño-Linares, J.M., Rodríguez, J.P., Rodríguez-Clark, K.M., Rojas-Suárez, F., Millán, P.A., Vittori, E.G. and Carrasco-Muñoz, M. (2011). Adapting to changing poaching intensity of yellow-shouldered parrot (Amazona barbadensis) nestlings in Margarita Island, Venezuela. Biological Conservation. 144: 1188–1193. Close ). Blanquilla held under 80 in 1992. Over 400 were counted on Bonaire, 1987, this population gaining some protection within Washington-Slagbaai National Park.