Cuban Amazon (Amazona leucocephala)

Species information

Videos and images

Threats

The Cuban population of this species has declined in numbers due to conversion of land to agriculture, hurricane damage to nesting trees, trapping of live birds for local and international trade as food and pets, and pushing over of nest trees to obtain chicks for trade (7) (8). The Abaco population in the Bahamas is also threatened by poaching for trade, as well as habitat loss and cat predation. The reasons for the species’ extinction on Little Cayman are unknown (2).

Conservation

The listing of the Cuban Amazon on CITES Appendix I makes all international trade in the Cuban Amazon illegal (7). The bird occurs in a few national parks in Cuba, in the Bahamas National Trust Park on Great Inagua, and is protected from hunting on Grand Cayman (2). Although poaching has diminished in a number of areas, this remains one of the highest priced of Amazons, and there is still a strong financial incentive to hunt it for trade. Sadly, habitat loss only makes this colourful parrot ever easier to find (8).