TABLE OF CONTENTS Puerto Rican Parrot 4 Bald Eagle 6 King Penguin 8 Kirtland’s Warbler 10 Whooping Crane 12 Eastern Bluebird 14 Brown Pelican 16 California Condor 18 Red-Cockaded Woodpecker 20 Kakapo Parrot 22 Palila 24 Peregrine Falcon 26 Fact Sheet 28 Glossary 30 For More Information 31 Index 32 About the Author 32
1 COLORFUL PUERTO RICAN PARROTS SOAR ONCE AGAIN parrots nesting trees New trees became hard to find after people cut down forests for farms Farmers planted citrus trees coffee plants and sugar cane By 1975 only 13 Puerto Rican parrots were left in the wild Several government agencies in Puerto Rico and the United States worked together to start the Puerto Puerto Rican parrots have flashy colors Their green feathers are tipped with blue These parrots gather in flocks and squawk loudly They nest in holes in tall trees They search for food in the forest’s canopy But their numbers started to fall after humans came on the scene Puerto Rican parrots settled the main island of Puerto Rico long before people arrived Approximately 1 million parrots lived on the island at the beginning of the 1500s But over time they began to face many dangers People trapped the parrots They sold them as pets and as food Red-tailed hawks ate their eggs and chicks Hurricanes blew down some of the 4 Puerto Rican parrots are the only parrots native to the United States
IUCN RED LIST The International Union for the Conservation of Nature IUCN keeps a list of all threatened species in the world called the Red List Each species is labeled according to how at risk it is Least Concern Not considered at risk Near Threatened At risk of being vulnerable or endangered in the future Vulnerable At risk of extinction Endangered At high risk of extinction Critically Endangered At extremely high risk of extinction Extinct in the Wild Only lives in captivity Extinct No members of a species are left Rican Parrot Recovery Program This program was launched in 1972 to help the parrots recover in the wild so they would no longer be endangered Scientists collected 7 Number of years it took for the first chick to be born in captivity Status Critically endangered Population Approximately 100 in the wild Home Puerto Rico Life Span Up to 50 years eggs and chicks from the wild They raised the parrots in aviaries The first chick was born in 1979 It took scientists years to learn more about the birds and how to hatch them The more scientists learned the more successful they became By 2013 almost 400 parrots were being raised in captivity Later the scientists released some parrots in the Rio Abajo State Forest and El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico The parrots started building nests in the forests and hatching chicks By 2013 more than 100 birds could be tracked in the wild Another 400 lived in captivity 5
