Burrowing Parrots - an agricultural pest?

PÉREZ, MR; SEIJAS, VERONICA; FAILLA, M; QUILLFELDT, P; MASELLO, JF

PsittaScene Magazine

World Parrot Trust

Lugar: Hayle; Año: 2005 vol. 17 p. 10 - 11

1363-3368

Burrowing Parrots or Patagonian Conures (Cyanoliseus patagonus), well known to PsittaScene readers, are one of the most southern Neotropical parrots. In Argentina they occur from the Andes slopes in the Northwest to the Patagonian steppes in the South. They breed in colonies, digging their own nest burrows by tunneling into the face of sandstone, limestone, or earth cliffs (see PsittaScene Vol 15 No 4: 12-13, PsittaScene Vol 16 No 2: 7-9 and PsittaScene Vol 17 No 2: 12-14. Formerly, these parrots were very common in Argentina, but their range has been reduced considerably since the second half of the XIX century, and now they are only regionally abundant. The decline of the Burrowing Parrots is in part due to persecution as a crop pest, increasing conversion of grassland to croplands and trapping for the live bird trade