Parrots and their Experience with the Ever-Expanding Concrete Jungle

Talk by Matt Geary

Doing conservation work can sometimes be pretty difficult especially when you’re trying to survey a species that manages to hide, when its need to be counted is greatest. This was the case for Matt Geary and his parrot project. The project was conducted in the Caribbean Island of Hispaniola, with focus specifically on areas within the Dominican Republic. They were looking for Amazon Parrots (of the genus Amazona) and Hispaniolan parakeets (Psittacara chloroptera). These birds are of similar colourings though are vastly different in sizes so are easily separated and can be surveyed well. The amazon parrots have a wide nesting range from coast to cloud forest, but the Dominican Republic has lost a lot of forest. However, the range of the Hispaniolan parakeet is widely unknown, though it has been known to be seen often.

During the initial surveying, more Amazon Parrots were spotted than were expected, and the number of Parakeets spotted was much lower than initially predicted. The numbers seemed to suggest that parakeets were disappearing from the island. Of the areas surveyed, they were found only in one and this was right on the border with Haiti, far from the areas of protected forest within the Dominican Republic where they were expected. The area they were found in the greatest numbers was the capital city, Santa Domingo, where it is estimated that there are between 1500 and 3000 individuals living. The original theory as to why this population existed was that they were pets which had been released, however, the pets would need to come from somewhere which wasn’t feasible. Now though there are breeding populations within the city.

 Transects were decided upon within the city to survey. Due to the city being a mix of rich and poor income, some areas of the city were not 100% safe. Therefore, only transects that were contained within safe areas were chosen for the survey. 2 master’s students from Bangor went to the Dominican Republic to help out with the survey’s and are currently still there. They were making counts of individuals, flocks and trying to spot nest counts. It was found that more parakeets were likely to be found in areas with greater tree species diversity and large green areas, such as parks and gardens. Fruiting trees and the closeness to large green spaces also affected the abundance of individuals. However, very few nest sites were found.

After all this, Matt looked at the number of parrots across the globe and saw that the number of parrots increased in cities. Another interesting part of this data was the parrot species found the most in urban areas. This parrot was in fact, the Hispaniolan Parakeet!