Cuban Parakeet

Some birds are so rare, and their range so restricted, that few people encounter them at all. The Cuban Parakeet, endemic to Cuba, is on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species. It was extirpated from the Isla de la Juventud, south of Cuba, soon after 1900. Although it was once common on Cuba, it is now found only in small, isolated, and fragmented populations due to habitat loss and trapping for the caged-bird trade, problems which continue today.

Maikel Cañizares Morera measures this young Cuban Parakeet

Much of what we know about Cuban Parakeets in the wild comes from Maikel Cañizares Morera, a Ph.D. candidate in a joint program between Universidad de la Habana, Cuba, and Universidad de Alicante, Spain. Maikel is working on his dissertation, “Breeding ecology and conservation of Cuban Parakeet (Aratinga euops).” The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a research and conservation program in Cuba; Eduardo E. Iñigo-Elias of the Lab serves as a co-director of his dissertation.

Maikel’s research and dissertation will provide a sound scientific basis for Cuban biologists to develop a management plan for the species, so that one day encounters with this beautiful bird may not be so rare.