Nesting habitat of the Tucuman Parrot Amazona tucumana in an old-growth cloud-forest of Argentina

RIVERA LUIS OSVALDO; POLITI NATALIA; BUCHER ENRIQUE H.

BIRD CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Año: 2011

0959-2709

Tucuman Parrot Amazona tucumana breeds in the cloud-forest of south-eastern Bolivia andnorth-western Argentina (or Southern Yungas forest). We studied the nesting requirements ofthe Tucuman Parrot and assessed cavity availability, reuse, and spatial pattern of nests in El ReyNational Park – one of the last mature, undisturbed areas of the Southern Yungas forest. Werecorded 44 nesting attempts in seven tree species, with most nests (95%) being located in livecanopy trees . 60 cm DBH. Most parrot nest-cavities occurred in Blepharocalix salicifolius(60%) and cavities in this species were selected significantly more than expected based onavailability. Nests were shallower and higher than nests of other Amazona species. For all yearscombined, mean nest density of Tucuman Parrot was 0.24 6 0.04 nest ha-1 and the distance to thenearest active nest was significantly greater than the distance between all trees used as nests.Nesting pairs of Tucuman Parrot were separated by 144.1 6 152.8 m, while potential nest-treeswere 66.0 6 55.4 m apart. Density of suitable cavities for nesting was 4.6 cavities ha-1.Approximately 16 suitable cavities were available for each breeding pair (0.24 breeding pair ha-1and four suitable cavities ha-1) and 5% of the suitable cavities available were occupied, suggestingthat suitable cavities are not a limiting resource. However, due to the territorial behaviour ofbreeding pairs, some of these cavities are unavailable to other breeding pairs. The spatialrequirements of Tucuman Parrot for nesting could limit management actions intended to increasethe density of nesting pairs.