In the years just prior to 1973, thrashers were 

 apparently responsible for the majority of parrot 

 nest failures, although this species was not present 

 in Luquillo Forest in any abundance before 1950 

 and thus was not involved in the early decline of 

 the parrots there. Starting in 1973, intensive 

 guarding of parrot nests has prevented any further 

 cases of nest failure from this cause. In 1973, 

 1974, and 1975, thrashers were eliminated by 

 shooting whenever they threatened parrot nests, 

 and in addition some nests were protected by 

 artificial incubation of eggs and later replacement 

 of young into nests. Parrots were maintained in 

 these nests by dummy eggs made from plaster. At 

 least 2, very likely 4, and possibly as many as 6 

 parrot nests were saved from thrasher predation 

 during these years by these efforts. 



Studies of nest-site preferences of thrashers 

 conducted in 1974, 1975, and 1976 demonstrated 

 a reluctance of this species to enter deep structures 

 with bottoms not visible from entrances. Parrots, 

 in contrast, appear to prefer such structures, and 

 in 1976 efforts to convert parrot nests into such 

 structures were begun. All parrot nests were 

 deepened and provided with baffles - changes 

 which the parrots accepted without obvious dif- 

 ficulties. Thrashers have been provided with 

 alternative nest sites close to each parrot nest and 

 once established in these alternative sites, have 

 greatly reduced the frequency with which thrash- 

 ers have attempted to enter parrot nests by their 

 intraspecific territorial behavior. Since 1977 there 

 have been no significant thrasher threats to any 

 parrot nests, and it has not been necessary to 

 eliminate any thrashers. 



The provision of artificially created nest sites 

 has also met with considerable success, and all 

 currently active parrot pairs are using such sites. 



As a hedge against loss of the wild population 

 and to provide a source of birds for future release 

 into the wild, a number of parrots have been taken 

 into captivity in recent years, primarily as eggs. 

 The current (1979) captive population stands at 

 15 individuals. As yet, no successful reproduction 

 has taken place in the captive flock, although 

 several females have laid infertile eggs and one 

 pair laid fertile eggs that did not hatch in 1978. 

 By chance, the captives taken consist largely of 

 females so their number of potential egg-laying 

 pairs has remained low. Success in breeding the 

 closely related Hispaniolan Parrot {Amazona 



ventralis) at Patuxent and at other facilities pro- 

 vides optimism that the captive program may 

 soon begin to produce young. 



Other management efforts of recent years 

 have been directed at reducing the impact of bot 

 fly parasitism of young parrots. Experiments 

 are currently underway with methods of prevent- 

 ing this parasitism. Nestlings of the past few 

 years have been closely monitored for parasitism 

 and treated when such parasitism has occurred. 



AUTHORITIES 



James Wiley 



Box 21 



Palmer, Puerto Rico 00721 



Noel Snyder 



Patuxent Wildlife Research Center 



Laurel, MD 20810 



Cameron Kepler 

 RR Maalaea Road 

 Kula, Hawaii 96790 



Frank H. Wadsworth 

 Institute of Tropical Forestry 

 University of Puerto Rico 

 Box AQ 

 Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico 00928 



PREPARER'S COMMENTS 



It appears that we now have the technology 

 for ensuring satisfactory reproduction of Puerto 

 Rican Parrots in the wild by appropriate effort 

 in nest site enhancement, brood care, and pearly- 

 eyed thrasher management. Future parrot man- 

 agement should concentrate on providing and 

 maintaining suitable nest sites combined with 

 continued routine censusing of the species. 



LITERATURE CITED/SELECTED 

 REFERENCES 



Danforth, S. J. 1935. Supplementary account of 

 the birds of the Virgin Islands, including 

 Culebra and adjacent islands, pertaining to 

 Puerto Rico, with notes on their food habits. 

 J. Agric. Univ. Puerto Rico 19(4):430-472. 



Forshaw, J. M. 1973. Parrots of the World. New 

 York, Doubleday & Company, p. 522. 



Kepler, C. B. 1970. The Puerto Rican Parrot in 

 Chapter E-14: Preliminary comparison of bird 

 species diversity and density in Luquillo and 



