Yellow-naped Amazon Parrots

In 2021, the yellow-naped amazon parrot (Amazona auropalliata) was declared critically endangered by the IUCN Red List — only three years after being put on the endangered species. This occurred after decades of steep declines in population. Over the past 20 years, the population of the yellow-naped amazon parrot in Central America has decreased by more than 50% as a result of deforestation and the illegal removal of the birds to be sold on the black market as pets.

We have seen alarming statistics at the local level. In 2007, in partnership with Loro Parque Fundación, we assessed the nest success rate of yellow-naped amazon parrots in southwest Nicaragua. Sadly, we learned that fewer than a quarter of nests were successful; the remainder of the nests were being destroyed by poachers or taken over by nest competitors. To the northwest in El Salvador, biologists have estimated that there are fewer than 250 wild yellow-naped amazons in the entire country, mostly in groups of fewer than 20.

Not only are yellow-naped amazon parrots emblematic of the dry tropical forest ecosystems, but they are crucial to the health of the forests. These parrots are important seed dispersers, and in losing them we lose the ability to regenerate the fragmented forests of Central America.

To respond in southwest Nicaragua, Paso Pacífico began an incentive program to pay community members to protect nests. For each successful fledgling, we pay farmers more than two times what the bird would be sold for on the black market. In order to combat the severe deforestation, we began to design artificial nest boxes for yellow-naped amazon parrots and other wildlife in need of nest habitat. We have also planted tens of thousands of trees that provide desirable food to the parrots.

Through this program and a ten-year partnership with Loro Parque Fundación, we have helped stabilize the population of yellow-naped amazon parrots in the initial area where we began the project! We hope to help the parrots’ numbers increase. So, Paso Pacífico continues protecting nests each season, with your support, and have now expanded our work to focus on protecting other core areas in Nicaragua and El Salvador.

If you would like to help protect these parrots and their homes, donate today!