Saint Lucia amazon

Saint Lucia Amazon
On St Lucia
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Psittaciformes
Superfamily: Psittacoidea
Family: Psittacidae
Subfamily: Arinae
Tribe: Androglossini
Genus: Amazona
Species: A. versicolor
Binomial name
Amazona versicolor
(Müller, 1776)

The Saint Lucia amazon (Amazona versicolor) also known as the Saint Lucia parrot is a species of parrot in the Psittacidae family. It is endemic to Saint Lucia and is the country's national bird.

Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forest. It is threatened by habitat loss. The species had declined from around 1000 birds in the 1950s to 150 birds in the late 1970s. At that point a conservation program began to save the species, which galvanised popular support to save the species, and by 1990 the species had increased to 350 birds.Although the population in Saint Lucia is small it is still expanding.

The story of its salvation from the brink of extinction (including the influence of conservationist Paul Butler) is told in Chapter 7 of the 2010 book "Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard" by Chip & Dan Heath.

References

  1. ↑ BirdLife International (2013). "Amazona versicolor". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.

External links