NEW Amazon of the Week 09/01/10 Hispaniolan Amazon

GoDiego · September 1, 2010

When looking on the internet I stumbled on this cute Amazon who's name in Spanish is Amazona De La Española (Amazon of the Spanish) In English this Amazon is known as the Amazona Hispanolian.

After finding out about the Hispaniolan Amazon here is some information on this species.

Hispaniolan Parrot (Amazona Ventralis)or also known as the San Domingo

Distribution / Range

These Amazons can be found in the Dominican republic and Haiti as well as a few offshore islands including Hispaniola and Gonave island. They have also been introduced to Puerto Rico, St Croix and St Thomas in the Virgin Islands.

They are found in a variety of wooded habitats which range from arid lowland palm-savannah to pine or even to more humid montane evergreen forests up to 1,500 metres above sea level. These Amazons often forage and steal from cultivated banana plantations and maize fields.

Over the recent years their population is decreasing in the wild. This is due to habitat clearance for agriculture and charcoal production, poaching for food, trapping for the illegal pet trate and shooting as a crop pest. Unfortunately nest poaching is fairly common for this Amazon where in some cases entire trees are cut down to obtain the nestlings for trade.

Natural Habitat and Breeding

They live in pairs and small flocks and will nest in tree cavities and sometimes dead tree stumps and rock crevices. Their breeding season is known to be between february to May but may extend further into the year. Their clutches range from 2 to 4 eggs maximum, these eggs hatch in around 30 days and the chicks normally fledge at 10-12 weeks of age. Hispaniolan pairs normally re-use the same nest year after year, many poachers remove the newborns and destroy these nests which afterwards stops the pair reproducing again.

This species of Amazon are not easy to breed in captivity and when attempted, it is best that the breeding pairs are isolated from other birds, although hearing other Amazons in near by aviaries have been proven to stimulate breeding. These parrots are not hardy and cannot survive if released in the wild. With these 2 factors the lack of breeding successes is another reason for the declining population.

Description

As with most Amazons this species has a mainly green plumage and has some feathers edged with dark blue which gives a slightly scaled appearance. They have a white forehead and white surrounding the eyes. They tend to have blue patches on their cheeks and crown with a little red under the chin and in the tail. They have a maroon belly-patch and their primary flight feathers and wing-coverts are blue and the tail has a slight yellowish colouration at the tips.

They measure around 11 inches long and an average adult weight is 250g, they may be one of the smaller Amazon parrots but they pocess a heavy and powerful beak. They are a cautious Amazon and noisy they like to spend most of their days eating and resting in trees. When in flight they have a very heavy wing beat and are slow.

By: Caroline