and don't pay much attention to nonterritorial 

 pairs (Noel Snyder pers. comm.). 



OTHER CRITICAL REQUIREMENTS 



Not known. 



POPULATION NUMBERS AND TRENDS 



Wetmore (1927) points out that in 1836, 

 Moritz reported great flocks of parrots in Puerto 

 Rico, and in 1864 Taylor found them to be 

 common. It seems that until the turn of the cen- 

 tury they were plentiful, particularly in the in- 

 terior, but in 1911-12, Wetmore located popula- 

 tions only in the karst of western Puerto Rico, 

 in the lowlands near the mouth of the Mameyes 

 River, and in the Luquillo Forest of eastern 

 Puerto Rico (Forshaw 1973). Counts in Luquillo 

 National Forest Reserve from August 1953 to 

 March 1956 never exceeded approximately 200 

 individuals (Rodriguez-Vidal 1959). By December 

 1966, the highest count achieved by Victor 

 Marquez in a several month effort was 70 indivi- 

 duals (pers. comm.), and by 1968 the highest 

 count achieved by Kepler was only 24. The wild 

 population dropped to a low point of only 13 or 

 14 in 1974, but has been showing some signs of 

 recovery since that time. By summer 1979, there 

 were 26 to 28 birds in the wild, including 4 breed- 

 ing pairs. 



REPRODUCTION 



With but one exception— a 1974 cavity in a 

 laurel sabino (Magnolia splendens)~dll recent 

 nests of the parrots have been in cavities in palo 

 colorados. The predominant use of palo colorados 

 is probably a reflection of the greater abundance of 

 natural cavities in this species. Nevertheless, good 

 nesting cavities are not abundant in general. Sys- 

 tematic climbing and checking of over 1200 trees 

 within the parrot nesting areas from 1973-1976 

 reve8ded a dearth of good cavities, and several 

 pairs of recent years have failed to lay eggs be- 

 cause of apparent failures to locate good sites, a 

 problem that has been alleviated in the last 4 

 years by provision of artificial nest sites (Snyder 

 arid Wiley pers. comm.). 



Incubation is approximately 26 days; clutch 

 size 2 to 4 (average 3), and nestling period 8 to 11 

 weeks (average 9 weeks). Only femjiles incubate 

 and males provide all food to females during the 

 incubation period. Both adults provide food for 



young. Sexual maturity is reached at 3 to 4 years 

 of age. 



Before 1973, when intensive nest manage- 

 ment efforts were begun, nesting success for all 

 nests found at the egg stage was between 1 1% and 

 26%. Since 1973, success has increased to 71%, 

 primarily due to efforts to alleviate nest predation 

 by pearly-eyed thrashers and to maintain the 

 quality of nest sites. Sources of nesting failure in 

 addition to nest-site disintegration and predation 

 by thrashers have been parasitism of nestlings by 

 bot flies and predation on adults and nestlings by 

 red-tailed hawks {Buteo jamaicensis), but neither 

 of these factors appears to have been a major 

 cause of the historical decline of the species. Nest- 

 robbing by man accounted for a large fraction of 

 the nestlings that survived other pressures up until 

 the late 1960's, but has not been a major problem 

 since that time. 



Numbers of young fledged in the wild in re- 

 cent years have run: 1973,3; 1974,3; 1975,6; 

 1976,8; 1977,3 ;1978,9;and numbers of egg-laying 

 pairs have run: 1973,3; 1974,2; 1975,5; 1976,4; 

 1977,3; 1978,4. 



MANAGEMENT AND CONSERVATION 



A program of study conducted by the Fishery 

 and Wildhfe Section of the Puerto Rico Dept. of 

 Agriculture and Commerce financed by the 

 Pitman-Robertson Federal Aid to Wildlife Pro- 

 gram from 18 August 1953 to 30 June 1956, with 

 Jose A. Rodriguez-Vidal as chief investigator, was 

 followed by a project developed in 1968 by the 

 U.S. Fish and WildUfe Service, U.S. Forest Ser- 

 vice, World Wildlife Fund, and the Commonwealth 

 of Puerto Rico. The latter project is still continu- 

 ing with primary funding from the U.S. Forest 

 Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 

 Studies from 1968 to 1971 were under the direc- 

 tion of Cameron Kepler; from 1972 to 1976 were 

 under the direction of Noel Snyder; and from 

 1977 to the present are under James Wiley. 



Management efforts began in 1956 with rat- 

 poisoning with warfarin in the parrot nesting 

 areas. Rat control has been continued in most 

 years of study since that date. However, recent 

 evidence strongly suggests that rats are only a 

 secondary threat to nests (Snyder pers. comm.), 

 and in recent years management emphasis has 

 shifted from rat control to efforts to reduce the 

 impacts of thrashers and to provide and enhance 

 the quality of nest sites. 



