Characteristics of a communal roost of <i>Amazona aestiva</i> in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina: a population outside its natural distribution range

Abstract

Psittacines are often illegally captured and sold as pets. The historical capture of specimens and the deforestation of the native forest have had negative consequences on psittacine species at a global level. Locally, individuals retained as pets and subsequently released have been able to establish outside their native range, and may even become invasive. The Turquoise-fronted Parrot (Amazona aestiva) is wanted as a pet for its ability to imitate sounds. Specimens released in the 1980s and 1990s in the City of Buenos Aires, established a population 750 km of the limit of their natural range. In 2015 and 2018, we detected roosts in the neighborhood of Saavedra and Parque Chas-Agronomía respectively. In this work we aimed to gain new knowledge about this population, its feeding sites, roosts and behavior. The two roosts studied were located on urban trees (mainly Platanus acerifolia), and are the only ones recorded so far in Buenos Aires. We recorded an average of 243 individuals in 2021 and 180 in 2022. We recorded 12 sites within a 20 km radius of the active roost where the Turquoise-fronted Parrot was observed. Parrots leave the roost at dawn and return at dusk. They consume fruits of Platanus acerifolia, Melia azedarach, Eriobotrya japonica, Styphnolobium japonicum, among others. These roosts may constitute a new resource for urban ecotourism, giving value to this species that persists outside its natural range where it is threatened.