A pair of Amazona vittata. the puertorican amazon calling from a tree near their nest

It has been an unusually rainy 24 of February.  Normally this month is one of the driest ones of the year.  But the arrival of a cold front ushered non stop rain and drizzle that has lasted the whole day.  In some parts of the island the rain has set records that had stood since the 1940's.  It has been a rainy and cloudy afternoon.  Every afternoon, I do a round to check the captive breeding pairs.  I do this every day during the breeding season, at a specific time.  The captive parrots become habituated to my presence and are not alarmed when I go by.   Some wild birds have territories inside the aviary and they also become habituated to my presence.   This pair is perching in a tree near to where their nest is located.  You can hear their calls and also the calls of other parrots who are near.  Their calls serve to mark their territory and to warn other birds away.   There was another pair who had a territory close to that of this pair.  The male of that pair died.  In an unusual turn of events, this pair tolerates the female in their territory rather than chasing her away as they do with other birds.  You can see the widowed female arrive after second 18 of the video.  The male is a captive bird that was released a few years back, you can see the antena of his radio transmitter.  The is lacking a few feathers from the top of his head, probably he lost them in a territorial fight.

A puertorican parrot displaying to others of its flock.

Sometimes the puertorican parrots will open partially open their wings when they are displaying to other birds.  My guess is that they do so to make themselves look bigger.  This wing opening is often accompanied with bowing, and a side to side motion.  This particular bird was displaying in front of two other birds who were licking the sap that oozed from a broken banana leave.

When resting among the foliage, the green color of the puerto rican parrot, Amazona vittata, serves as a great camouflage

The puerto rican parrot is one of the Amazons with the the least color aside from green.  When resting or hiding among the vegetation it is very hard to see.  These two parrots were photographed just after sun down.  As you can see by the retracted foot inside the plumage of the left parrots, it is quite at home and relaxed in the tree stump.  The left parrot vocalizing loudly, something they do at sundown and at sunrise.  The bird to the left has a radio transmitter.

Male Puerto Rican parrot displaying to two apparently indifferent females

In the Rio Abajo forest in Arecibo I was able to observe a male Puerto Rican parrot cupping his wings and moving his body from side to side on a bare branch a few feet from two females.  The male is making himself seem larger and he is moving in a way that presumably is particularly sensual and attractive.  The two females were liking the sap that was oozing from the raquis of a banana leaf.  The females had broken the raquis to gain access to the sap.  It seems the dance was a success, eventually the male left and the females followed him.

En el bosque de Rio Abajo, Arecibo, pude observar un macho de cotorra de Puerto Rico abriendo parcialmente sus alas y moviendo su cuerpo de lado a lado en una rama a algunos pies de dos hembras.  El macho esta haciendo su cuerpo mas grande y moviéndose en lo que presumimos que es una forma especialmente sensual y atractiva.  Las dos hembras, se encontraban lamiendo la savia que manaba del raquis de una hoja de guineo que habían partido adrede para tener acceso a la savia.  Al parecer la danza fue exitosa, cuando el macho se fue, las hembras lo siguieron.