Hispaniolan amazon
| Hispaniolan amazon | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Psittaciformes |
| Family: | Psittacidae |
| Genus: | Amazona |
| Species: | A. ventralis |
| Binomial name | |
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Amazona ventralis (Müller, 1776) |
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The Hispaniolan amazon or Hispaniolan parrot (Amazona ventralis) is a species of parrot in the family Psittacidae. It is found on Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and has been introduced to Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The main features that differentiate it from other amazons are the white forehead, pale beak, white eye-ring, blue ear patch, and red belly.
Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, and plantations. It is threatened in its home range by habitat loss and the capture of individuals for the pet trade.
The presence of this bird outside of its native Hispaniola is due to it being introduced, this in part from a release of birds raised in captivity as a studied rehearsal for the re-colonization program of the highly endangered Puerto Rican amazon.
As with other amazons, it prefers forested areas where food is plentiful. This parrot lives in the wood forests in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. However over the recent years they have been captured out of their natural habitat illegally for pet trades or just to keep them as pets which are very popular in the Dominican Republic. Right now the population ranges from 10,000 to 19,000 in the wild and decreasing.
The sharply declining population of Hispaniolan amazons are found in a small area of Haiti, Dominican Republic and a few offshore islands. It has been introduced to Puerto Rico.
These parrots create nests in tree cavities, the clutch ranges from 2 to 4 eggs maximum, the eggs hatch in about a 30 days and chicks usually fledge at 10 to 12 weeks of age. However people often remove the newborns from the tree cavities and destroy the nest that have been reused over the years and afterwards priving the parrot from reproducing.
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Wikipedia