[order] PSITTACIFORMES | [family] Psittacidae | [latin] Aratinga euops | [authority] Wagler, 1832 | [UK] Cuban Parakeet | [FR] Conure de Cuba | [DE] Kubasittich | [ES] Aratinga Cubana | [NL] Cubaanse Aratinga | [copyright picture] Birdlife
| Genus |
Species |
subspecies |
Region |
Range |
| Aratinga |
euops |
|
NA |
Cuba |
Genus
The parrot genus Aratinga comprises 24 species. Aratinga is a genus of American parakeets. They belong to the long-tailed group. Most are predominantly green, although a few are predominantly yellow or orange. They are social and commonly seen in groups in the wild. In Brazil the popular name of several species usually is Jandaia, sometimes written as Jandaya in the scientific form.
The genus Aratinga includes species with habitat from South America to Mexico. Birds in the Aratinga genus have a “swift, direct flight” that differs from other similar birds according to “Parrots of the World.” Other characteristics include the males and females looking alike, a fully feathered face and a rather long tail that starts wide at the base and becomes slender at the tip.
Plain green parakeet with red bend of the wing. Scattered red feathers on head and breast, bare white orbital ring, red carpal and underwing-coverts, yellowish-green underside of flight feathers and tail. It is the only parakeet on Cuba.
Listen to the sound of Cuban Parakeet
[audio:http://www.planetofbirds.com/MASTER/PSITTACIFORMES/Psittacidae/sounds/Cuban Parakeet.mp3]
Copyright remark: Most sounds derived from xeno-canto
recorded by Brian Cox
| wingspan min.: |
0 |
cm |
wingspan max.: |
0 |
cm |
| size min.: |
26 |
cm |
size max.: |
27 |
cm |
| incubation min.: |
22 |
days |
incubation max.: |
23 |
days |
| fledging min.: |
45 |
days |
fledging max.: |
50 |
days |
| broods: |
1 |
|
eggs min.: |
3 |
|
| |
|
|
eggs max.: |
5 |
|
North America : Cuba. It was formerly one of the most common endemic birds on Cuba, but is now rare throughout the island. It survives in a few of the more remote regions, remaining fairly common only in the Zapata peninsula, the Trinidad Mountains and the Sierra de Najasa. Suggestions that the species occurred in the Sierra Maestra appear unfounded. It has been extirpated from the western provinces (excepting Zapata) and Isla de la Juventud, where it was once abundant. Recent studies of 14 populations have found that four are in serious decline. Even the population within Cienaga de Zapata National Park appears to have declined, with recent surveys finding no flocks larger than 18 birds.
It has been recorded in semi-deciduous woodland, palm-savanna habitat, trees on cultivated land and the edges of woodland. It nests in tree-cavities or holes in arboreal termite nests, and is mostly restricted to dead Roystonea regia and Sabal palviflora palms.
Nests in hollow palm, tree-cavity or active arboreal termite nests which are often excavated by the Cuban Green Woodpecker. Clutch size is 3-5 eggs which are incubated for about 22-23 days, young fledge after another 7 weeks.
Feeds on fruits of mango, papaya, guava, Roystonea palms, Melicoccus bijugatus and Spondias luteus, and seeds of Inga vera, shoots, millet, berries and grass seeds.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp2jeqOnD7c
copyright: fermincervera
This species has declined rapidly, and now has a small and fragmented range and population. The rate of decline is unkown, but it is still trapped for the domestic market and habitat loss continues; the population probably now numbers fewer than 5,000 individuals, and the species therefore qualifies as Vulnerable.
Persecution as a crop-pest, trapping for the cage-bird trade, and habitat loss explain its current rarity. Trapping is now insignificant. The most important threat is loss of nesting-trees as a result of hurricane damage (such as caused in Zapata by Hurricane Lilli in 1996), and tree-felling for Cuban Parrot Amazona leucocephala chicks.
The species seems somewhat nomadic, ranging widely in search of food
