Saint Vincent amazon
| Saint Vincent amazon | |
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| Specimen at Botanic Gardens St. Vincent, Kingstown. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Psittaciformes |
| Superfamily: | Psittacoidea |
| Family: | Psittacidae |
| Subfamily: | Arinae |
| Tribe: | Androglossini |
| Genus: | Amazona |
| Species: | A. guildingii |
| Binomial name | |
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Amazona guildingii (Vigors, 1837) |
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The Saint Vincent amazon (Amazona guildingii) also known as Saint Vincent parrot, is a large, approximately 40 cm long, multi-colored amazon parrot with a yellowish white, blue and green head, greenish-bronze upperparts plumage, and violet blue-green wings.
40 cm (16 in) long, mostly green, multi-colored amazon parrot with a yellowish white, blue and green head, greenish-bronze upperparts, grey feet, reddish eye, and violet blue-green wings. Its tail feathers are blue with broad yellow tips. There is a less yellow-brown morph and a less common green morph. It has grey feet and reddish eyes. Both sexes are similar. The young has lighter plumage and brown iris.
The Saint Vincent amazon is endemic to the heavily forested mountains of the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent in the Lesser Antilles. Its diet consists mainly of fruits, nuts, flowers and seeds. The female usually lays one to two eggs.
The Nicholas Wildlife Aviary Complex, located within the Saint Vincent (island) maintains a vital captive breeding and conservation program to conserve the St Vincent Parrot.
There is also a small population of St. Vincent parrots at the long-closed Graeme Hall Nature Sanctuary in Barbados. However there has been at least one raid on the parrots in the last few years with one being killed so that in 2010 the owner of the Sanctuary requested the Barbados Government if he could move them to an off-shore Island. After some years of prevarication the Barbados Government still has to make a decision on this. Meanwhile the Sanctuary is suffering from increased poaching and raids, about which the local Police have been reported as not doing anything.
Hunting for food, trapping for the cage-bird trade and habitat loss were the principal causes of this species's decline. Deforestation has been the result of forestry activities, the expansion of banana cultivation, charcoal production, the loss of nesting-trees felled by trappers seeking young birds for trade, and natural events such as hurricanes and volcanic eruptions (Snyder et al. 2000).
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Wikipedia