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St Lucia Parrot (Jacquot)
Amazona versicolor
This page is also available in Portuguese: Papagaio de Santa Lúcia.
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As its name suggests, the St. Lucia Parrot, or Jacquot, is found only on the island of St. Lucia in the West Indies where it lives in the central mountain rainforest. In the darkness of the forest, their feathers appear dull and the parrots blend into their leafy world. But when the sunlight shines on their feathers, they display a brilliant pallet of red, green and blue. In the early morning and evening the parrots search the treetops for food, which includes a wide variety of fruits and seeds. The birds have a range of calls, from soft and liquid to harsh and strident.
Breeding and LifecycleEarly in the year birds aged four years or more pair up with a mate they keep for life (the 'life' part is a guess, jg). They search for a nest hole high up in an old tree and between March and June have their young.
Nothing is added to the nest and the female lays one or two (up to three, jg) white eggs on the rotten wood base and incubates them for around 28 days. The chicks are bald, blind and totally dependent on their parents for protection, warmth and food. The parents regurgitate partially digested food for their young until, after about 80 days, they join the adults in the forest.
Status and ConservationStatus: EndangeredBy 1975 as few as 100 parrots survived in the wild. Combined pressures from deforestation and shooting were taking their toll. The St. Lucia Forestry and Lands Department initiated and island-wide education programme while protecting substantial areas of rainforest and banning all hunting until further notice. The Jacquot became the National Bird in 1979, the year of St. Lucia's independence, and the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust was invited to collect fledglings from the nest to begin the world's only breeding program at Forestry Headquarters. Now, JWPT, WPTI, and St Lucia Forestry officers are studying the parrots in their aviaries and in the forest to perfect breeding techniques. The number of St. Lucia parrot in the wild has almost tripled since conservation measures were first introduced. |
Field Notes from Jamie Gilardi
 A habitat shot very near one of the nests. That's a fig (Ficus spp.) with the large butresses and the two small palms are called Gwi Gwi in patois (Aiphanes luciana). They are both important foods of the parrots. The palm has nasty spines on it's trunk, so when moving down the very steep slopes of the rainforest, you DEFINITELY don't want to grab one for security. I've done it once, never again!
 This is Alwin Dornelly climbing up a parrot nest. He's using a technique adapted from caving and rock-climbing which uses ascenders to move up the rope. It takes some strength, but mostly technique. It works very well for even the tallest trees and if done properly is quite safe. In the red bag, he's carrying all the equipment he'll need to weigh and measure the parrot chicks.
 One of our most important measurements is that of the "wing chord" which give you an idea of how rapidly the birds' wings are developing. Alwin is using a dial caliper to measure from the bend in the bird's wing to the wing-tip.
Use these controls to play the sound clip and adjust the volume.
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©2000
The Wild Ones
c/o Wildlife Trust
61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964-8000
Tel: 845.365.8337 Fax: 845.365.8177