American Bird Conservancy (ABC), Kyle Brown Legacy, Barbara Delano Foundation
The Black-billed Amazon’s (Amazona agilis) population is being decimated by poaching and habitat loss due to forest clearance and hurricanes.
With the American Bird Conservancy and the Kyle Brown Legacy, WPT provided funding to study the distribution and population size of Jamaica’s Amazon parrots, including the Black-billed Amazon, in Cockpit Country.
Since 1995, there have been studies to determine the species’ range, estimate population size, identify factors limiting reproduction and train local people in research methods and monitoring.
IUCN/CITES Status: Endangered / Appendix II
Population: 6000-15,000 mature individuals, decreasing.
Threats: This parrot’s habitat has been lost through agriculture and logging. Mining has possibly resulted in much-reduced forests. It is also trapped as a food source locally, and there is also predation by yellow boas.
Range: C Jamaica, West Indies.
Natural history: This species is found between 300-1200 m (984-3936 ft) in wet limestone forest; also found in agricultural plots in forest and cultivated areas at forest edge. It feeds on seeds, fruits, berries, leaf buds and blossoms; also ripe plantain Musa, Cecropia, Ficus, Nectandra, Bryophyllum, Blighia sapida and Melia azedarach. Birds are found in flocks of 6-40 individuals or more. They roost communally, rising at sunrise with much noise and high-flying, feeding in middle to upper storeys of the canopy and wandering locally according to food availability.