Puerto Rican Parrot

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Physical Description

Puerto Rican parrots are medium-sized Amazon birds with mostly green plumage. Their primary feathers, mainly visible when they are resting or flying, are a vivid blue. A small red crown and white eye-rings distinguish them from the similar-looking Hispaniolan parrot and red-crowned parrot. In the wild, they feast on seeds, nuts, bark, and nectar found in the forest canopy. Puerto Rican parrots mate for life, breeding from January to July during the dry season. Chicks are born without feathers in clutches of two to four birds.

Interesting Fact 1

The two males at Lincoln Park Zoo are the first Puerto Rican parrots to live in the continental United States. They are here as part of a managed population recovery effort.

Interesting Fact 2

These birds are secondary cavity nesters; they don’t excavate new nest cavities, but instead rely on previously excavated sites or holes.

Interesting Fact 3

They have inhabited Puerto Rico for more than 1,000 years and once numbered in the millions, but since European colonization of the island, their numbers have plummeted.