Seychelles Black Parrot

Seychelles Black Parrot
Conservation status
Vulnerable  (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Psittaciformes
Superfamily:	Psittacoidea
Family:	Psittrichasiidae
Subfamily:	Coracopsinae
Genus:	Coracopsis
Species:	Coracopsis nigra
Subspecies:	C. n. barklyi
Trinomial name
Coracopsis nigra barklyi (Newton, 1867)

The Seychelles Black Parrot, Praslin Parrot or Kato Nwar (Coracopsis nigra barklyi) is a sombre-coloured, medium-sized parrot endemic to the Seychelles. It is usually treated as a subspecies of the Lesser Vasa Parrot, though it is sometimes considered a full species.^[1] It is the national bird of the Seychelles.

Description

The Seychelles Black Parrot is grey-brown in colouring.^[1] It is about 30 cm in length, smaller and paler than the 35 cm Lesser Vasa Parrot.^[2]

Distribution and habitat

The parrot is found only on the islands of Praslin, where its breeding range is largely limited to the Vallée de Mai Nature Reserve, and, since 1988, on neighbouring Curieuse where it has been seen feeding though not recorded as breeding. It inhabits woodland, scrubland and gardens.^[1][3]

Behaviour

Feeding

The parrots’ diet is principally fruit, both wild and cultivated, as well as flowers and buds. Wild foods include the fruits of the endemic palm Vershaffeltia splendida, growing along the river valleys, as well as the flowers of the Coco de Mer.^[4] Cultivated fruits utilised by the parrots include guava, papaya, mango and, especially, bilimbi crops, for which the birds have been persecuted by orchardists.^[1]

Breeding

The birds breed in tree hollows, as well as in the nest boxes provided as part of a conservation management program.^[1]

Status and conservation

The population of the Seychelles Black Parrot has declined to about 200–300 birds, with fewer than 100 breeding pairs, the result of both persecution and habitat loss.^[1] Although it is protected, it is threatened by illegal persecution outside the reserve as well as by competition for nesting hollows with Common Mynas,^[3] and predation by introduced rats.^[2][5]

References