Increasing Knowledge of the Most Endangered Parrots

Fifty years ago our knowledge of the status of parrots in the wild was limited. Few parrot species were known to be in danger of extinction and these were mainly Amazona parrots which were confined to small islands. At that time very few species had been studied in the wild.

- Rosemary Low

Today, knowledge of the status of parrots has increased enormously and nearly all the 400 species have been assessed. We now know that parrots are the most endangered of all the large groups of birds and that about one third of all parrot species are in a threat category. Even if status information had been available 50 years ago, this would not have been the case. The past half century has proved disastrous for parrots due to massive deforestation in all the continents on which they occur, and due to the impact on many species of largely uncontrolled and unsustainable trapping for the pet trade.

In the October issue I described the situation of some species, such as Brazil’s Grey-breasted Conure, Ecuador’s Yellow-faced Parrotlet and Bolivia’s Blue-throated Macaw that have been reduced to populations of fewer than 1,000 individuals due to trapping for the pet trade, mostly illegal. Another species in this category is a cockatoo, which many of us can remember being imported. For example, between 1983 and 1989 more than 350 wild-caught Philippine Cockatoos entered the UK (Cites Trade Database), and many more followed. That number is about one third of the population known to exist today in their natural habitat.

Philippine Cockatoo or Red-vented Cockatoo (Cacatua haematuropygia)

IUCN Critically Endangered 1994 (1988 Threatened).

Birdlife: 650-1,120 individuals, roughly equivalent to 430-750 mature individuals.

Populations increasing or declining, according to the island inhabited.