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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

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)

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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