Amazona ventralis, the hispaniolan parrot, in flight

This photo shows particularly well the belly area of a hispaniolan parrot.  The colors of the belly of the hispaniolan parrot can be used, along with other things, to ID this species.  One of the most distictive characteristics of the hispaniolan parrot is its white forehead.  The blue patches just behind the eyes are also useful to identify this species.  But it is the combined observation of the various traits that can give you the best confidence that you have correctly identifed this species.  In this photo you can see the white forehead, the blue patch behind the eye, the red patches in front of the legs and the red tail feathers.  This bird was photographed in one of the Rio Abajo aviary flight cages.  Hispaniolan parrots are used here as foster parent to eggs and chicks of the Puerto Rican parrot.  They are not for sale.  A selected few of these birds stay in the project their entire life where they receive exactly same care as the PR parrots.  Because the hispanionan parrots on ocasion are allowed to raise their own chicks, we produce a small number of birds of this species.  Some of the chicks stay in the program, most are sent to the Dominican Republic where a number of them have been released into the wild in El Parque del Este.  The USFWS sometimes keeps a few in the Iguaca aviary hispaniolan flock.

Here you can see the flight feathers.  The flight feathers are black and navy blue.  The colors of the flight feathers of the hispaniolan parrots is different from the color of the same feathers in the PR parrot.  In the PR parrot the flight feathers are turquoise.  This photo is of Ivan.  He if flying in the Rio Abajo bird hospital room.  Sometimes birds have to be hospitalized for a few days to receive treatments.  If they are alone in the hospital they can become depressed.  Ivan was born in May 2012, I plan to use him as a companion parrot to birds in the hospital.  Ivan is relaxed among humans and is familiar with the inside of office and the hospital.  I hope his generally unstressed demeanor among humans will be reassuring to birds in the hospital.  I have to add that infectious diseases are extremely rare in the RA aviary, almost all the birds that end up in the hospital do so because they need treatment for accidents or scrapes due to fighting .  After a few days of antibiotics they are sent back to their cages none worse for the wear.  In the case of a suspicion of an infectious disease we have a separate quarantine building that is used for this cases. 

Working on an artificial nest used by a wild pair of Amazona vittata, the Puerto Rican parrot

Ivan Llerandi Roman the leader of the wild release project, note all the equipment hanging from Ivan's utility belt

Gustavo Olivieri

An artificial nest high up in a tree

A wild female turning the eggs, they turn the eggs over every fifteen minutes on average

A baby that has just hatched is gently cupped under the wing by the female, you can see the part of the egg shell under the head of the female.  You can see the head of the newly hatched baby near the center of the photo.

Eddie Velez

The top part of the cage in the photo is about twenty feet all.

One of the more secretive aspects of the parrot project is the work that is done with the wild nests.  The reason for the secrecy is to protect the nests from unwanted human intervention which can, sad to say, include the theft of the nestlings for sale.  Unfortunately even well meaning people can cause a nest to fail if they try to approach it when the parrots are nesting.    Therefore the work of the people that manage the nests in the wild is practically unknown by the general public.  Another problem that affects the recognition of the achievements of the field workers in the area of nest management is that most of this work takes place deep in forested areas where the conditions generally are not conductive for good photography.  As a result this work is rarely documented and even more rarely described on print.  The need for artificial nests in the wild is due to the fact that for centuries and all the way up to the middle of the twenty century the main fuel for the island was wood.  As a result there was severe deforestation on many parts of the island and even on places where the forest now appears in a reasonably good health old trees are few and far between.  Also at the start of the twenty century there was a forestry theory that deemed old, hole ridden, mature trees less desirable than young trees which were still growing vigorously.  As a result in some forest areas old trees were cut down to encourage new growth. 

But in 2009 and 2010 we had the unexpected opportunity to document the work in a nest in a tree inside the aviary.  It has to be noted that the wild release staff pretty unhappy with the location of this nest.  Its location inside the aviary grounds raised all sort of issues about unintended disturbance of the breeders during our daily work at the aviary.  But they had to submit to the will of the parrot pair that signaled they wanted to nest in this particular area, and that was that.  The pair that chose this nest is the one whose male is known by the nickname “Scarface”.   The “Scarface” pair had been haunting the area around the aviary for a couple of years and had rejected or ignored all the nests that were offered in other areas.  For some reason known only to them, the pair decided that they wanted to nest inside the aviary.  Those that are old hands at the PR parrot project know that this is a startling, unheard of situation as wild nests in the east part of the island in the Luquillo mountains are in rugged, hard to get locations, well away from human habitation and the possibility of human disturbance.    But the silver lining in this particular case is that secrecy is not needed as the nest is closely, and jealously,  guarded by the staff.  The way we adapted to the presence of the breeding pair and the tolerance they showed for our rhythm of work helped bring a collective sigh of relief from everybody as from historical reports we know that Puertorican parrots nests have been abandoned over disturbances that other bird species would have ignored.

The tree where the artificial nest is located has to be prepared to receive the nest and fitted with the necessary infrastructure that allows maintenance and checking of the nest.  This particular nest has a close circuit camera that operates in the infrared region of the spectrum, this allows us to check the birds without disturbing their nesting activities.

The photos posted shows work done is 2009 and 2010.  Working with wild nests demands stamina, impressive upper level strength and the ability to work while hanging from ropes in leg and butt numbing positions.  Obviously a lack of fear of height is a must in this kind of work, you will notice that there is a large vanilla orchid on top of the nest, I have never climbed there to check that orchid out.

The nest needs to be fitted with wooden entrances to allow the birds to gnaw on the wood of the entrance, an important part of their nest choosing/preparing procedure.   The nest is also checked periodically during the breeding season to see the condition of the eggs and chicks and to band the chicks.

 To our great happiness the clutch in the nest was incubated flawlessly by the female.  The pair raised two healthy babies than on due time fledged from the nest.  I had the opportunity to observe closely and in unparalleled comfort (in relation to the experience of watching  other nests wild nests both in El Yunque and Rio Abajo) the whole breeding cycle.

I hope these photos give you an idea of the strenuous nature of this little known aspect of our work that is as crucial for the survival of the population at the Rio Abajo forest as the more widely publicized aspects of iur operation.  I would ask of all of you that if you come across a parrot nest in the wild, please do not, under any condition, try to climb the tree or disturb the parrots in any way, this will only make our work much, much harder and may make the parrots abandon the area altogether.   Another reason not to climb up to the nest is the very real possibility of falling from the tree.  Finding someone with its neck broken from a fall who has died sloooowly while being eaten alive by fire ants, centipedes and eyeball and brain gouging beetles would probably leave us inconsolable for about ten seconds after which we would have to make arrangements to drag the body out of the forest, notify the next of kin and present a nomination for a Darwin award on behalf of the dumb-as-a-doorknob deceased.

I want to add that if we notice anyone disturbing the parrots on their nesting areas we will call the local police, notify the federal government, the vigilantes of the DNER and I will personally call their mothers to tell them in no uncertain terms what horribly inconsiderate children they have.   So far we have had absolutely no problems with anyone bothering the parrots or their nests and we hope it stays this way.

Information about the Puerto Rican Parrot in the Vivaldi (Rio Abajo) aviary

One of the bird of thr Rio Abajo Forest wild flock, raised in captivy.  You can see the antena and the radio transmiter that allow us  to keep track of them

Agency – Department of Natural and Environmental Resources

Bureau of Fish and Wildlife
Division of Wildlife
Endangered Species Section
Project – Program for the propagation in captivity and release into the wild the Puerto Rican parrot
Email address – el.cotorro.electrico@gmail.com, illerandi@drna.gobierno.pr
Project leaders – Ricardo Valentín, Ivan Llerandi
Biologists and Technicians – Brian Ramos, Jong Piel Banch Plaza, Tomás Medina, Eddie Velez, Milagros Cartagena, Gustavo Olivieri, Alberto Alvarez
Location – Rio Abajo State Forest
Jurisdiction – Arecibo, Puerto Rico
Residents – The Vivaldi aviary has 3 permanent residents that assure that there is always someone watching
the aviary and a number of workers that stay overnight when there is the need.

Visits – The Vivaldi aviary is not open to the public
Protected Species – Amazona vittata – the Puerto Rican Parrot

The Aviary also has some pairs of the Hispaniolan Parrot (Amazona ventralis). These pairs are used as foster parents for Puerto Rican parrot chicks when necessary.


Wild Population Estimate – From 30 to 40 individuals in the Rio Abajo Forest, 20-30 in the Caribbean National Forest.

Location of Wild Population – Restricted to the Caribbean National Forest, El Yunque and to the Rio Abajo forest.
Total Population, including parrots in captivity – A total of 269 in captivity, 60 to 70 in the wild.

Captive Groups of the Puerto Rican Parrot

Iguaca Aviary – 133
Agency – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Rio Abajo Aviary – 136 birds
Agency - Department of Natural and Enviromental Resources of Puerto Rico

Wild populations of the Puerto Rican parrot

El Yunque, Caribbean National Forest – 20 – 30
This is the original population that survived the near extinction event

Rio Abajo Forest population 30-40
This is a new population which was started with birds released from captivity. Rio Abajo used to be a stronghold of the PR.

A Short History of the Vivaldi (Rio Abajo) Aviary

Starting date – In 1989 30 Hispaniolan parrots were transferred from the Luquillo aviary to the Rio Abajo aviary to serve as sentinels to detect the presence of infections diseases, to put operational logistics to test, and to evaluate the capacity of the technical staff.

Chronology of Important Events for the Vivaldi Aviary at Rio Abajo Forest

1993 – first group of Puerto Rican parrots transferred from the Luquillo aviary
1994 – first breeding season in Rio Abajo; 2 Puerto Rican (PR) parrot fledglings produced
1995 – second group of 13 Puerto Rican parrots transferred from the Luquillo aviary, 10 PR fledglings produced
1996 – third season; 10 PR fledglings produced
1997 – fourth season; 5 PR fledglings produced
1998 – fifth season; 10 PR fledglings produced
1999 – sixth season; 13 PR fledglings produced
2000 – seventh season; 16 PR fledglings produced; 1 chick received from Luquillo, 9 parrots sent to Luquillo for the release project in El Yunque
2001 – eighth season; 17 PR fledglings produced (3 died after fledging); 3 chicks received from Luquillo; 10
parrots sent to Luquillo for release.
2002 – ninth season; 16 PR fledglings produced
2003 – tenth season; 11 PR fledglings produced
2004 – 11 PR fledglings produced
2005 – 12 chicks
2006 – The best year ever in the Vivaldi aviary until that date, a staggering 29 fledglings are produced in a single season.
2007 - 31 fledglings produced at the aviary
2008 – 30 fledgelings
2009 - 30 fledglings
2010 - 33 fledglings

Total production so far – 271 Puerto Rican fledglings

Captive management Philosophy:


The Rio Abajo aviary is a captive breeding facility that is not open to the public. The principal purpose of the aviary is to be a bank of genetic material representative of the species to provide parrots for future reintroductions into the wild. The facility is equipped with everything necessary to perform many procedures without having to remove the birds from the property. We use a management method that is minimally invasive to the birds’ territories, which are composed of different areas of breeding cages. We use large sized flight cages, of 60 feet in length and 14 feet in height, to socialize the young parrots and so that they can form pairs in a free and natural manner so as to produce pairs of the best quality. We try to maintain an environment that is positively stimulating to the majority of the reproductive pairs and results in less stress.

In the Rio Abajo aviary we have a deep respect for the Puerto Rican parrot as an animal with a large cognitive capacity that needs to be provided not just with the basic necessities of food and water, but also of an environment adequate for exercising the full realm of behavior that they possess. To be able to fill their mental needs we provide spacious cages, fruit, branches, leaves, and toys made of wood, coconut, and rope.  The adult breeding cages are separated from one another by barriers of vegetation and dark screen. We severely limit the access of humans in the areas of breeding cages. We try to reduce to as little as possible the amount of contact the parrots have with humans to avoid the parrots’ becoming accustomed to human contact.  We carefully study the behavior of the young adults and reproductive pairs to look for what might help us to stimulate reproduction in captivity.  We maintain a complete database of our activities with the parrots to be able to evaluate the results of our actions.  We use the Hispaniolan parrot, Amazona ventralis, as foster parents to incubate eggs and raise PR parrot chicks. The eggs and chicks of the Hispaniolan parrots are used to provide practical experience to PR parrot pairs that are new and inexperienced in incubating eggs and rearing chicks

A male in the wild