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Home
> News & Events > MAARSianChronicles
> Issue 15: December 2006 > On the Wild
Side: Full House: The Burrowing Parrots of Patagonia
On the Wild Side
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The Burrowing Parrot, also known as
the Patagonian Conure, nests in large colonies in sandstone
cliffs near the Atlantic Ocean in Argentina.
(Photo by Christina Büßer,
World Parrot Trust)
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Full House: The Burrowing
Parrots of Patagonia
by Juan F. Masello, Christina Sommer, and Petra Quillfeldt
PsittaScene, Volume 18: No. 2, May 2006
Imagine the largest colony of parrots in the world.
With over 35,000 active nest burrows the Burrowing Parrots (Cyanoliseus
patagonus) of El Cóndor, Patagonia, Argentina, hold this
impressive distinction. Birds in the colony are the nominate subspecies
Cyanoliseus p. patagonus. Counts during the 2001–02 breeding
season showed that the colony extended along 9 km (5.6 mi) of a sandstone
cliff facing the Atlantic Ocean in the province of Río Negro,
Patagonia, and contained 51,412 burrows, an estimated 37,527 of which
were active. Additionally, 6,500 parrots not attending nestlings were
found to be associated with the colony during the 2003–04 breeding
season. To our knowledge this population is the largest known colony
for the entire order Psittaciformes (Parrots and Cockatoos).
Click here to read
the rest of this World Parrot Trust article in PDF format.
The World Parrot Trust is an international non-profit
organization dedicated to the survival of parrots in the wild and the
welfare of captive birds everywhere. Membership includes their quarterly
magazine, PsittaScene, which includes updates on this project
and many others. For more information visit www.worldparrottrust.org.
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