Distribution

Cuban Parakeet is resident on the Island of Cuba; formerly also occurred in the Island of Youth (Isle of Pines), but now is extirpated from there.

For many years Cuban Parakeet was considered abundant and widespread in the Cuban archipelago including the Isla de la Juventud (Island of Youth) (Orbigny 1839, Gundlach 1876, Rutten 1934, Barbour 1943, Garcia 1987, Forshaw 1989). Currently the distribution of the species is limited only to the island of Cuba, with the westernmost population found around the Zapata Swamp and the easternmost population in the Toa River watershed. The population at the Island of Youth was extirpated in the late 1800s (Bang and Zappey 1905, Todd 1916, Barbour 1943, Collar et al. 1992, Cañizares 2012) (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Current localities of breeding populations of Cuban Parakeet (Aratinga euops) (Cañizares 2012).

The population of Cuban Parakeet has declined since the mid 1940s due to habitat loss and the capture of live birds for the illegal pet trade (Barbour 1943, 1945, Cañizares 2012). Currently the Zapata swamp represents the western limit of the distribution of the species. In this region there are several breeding populations, at Bermejas, Santo Tomás, Los Sábalos, Boca del Guamá and Peralta, Guasasa and Cocodrilo (Gundlach 1876, Bond 1950, González 1987, Galvez and Berovides 2002, Cañizares et al. 2006, Iñigo-Elias 2012 personal observations).

In the savannas north of Villa Clara - Ciego de Avila, Cuban Parakeet breeds at the Mogotes de Jumagua, Ciénega de Guayabera, Lomas de Cunagua and Sierra de Cubitas. The populations at all of these localities, however, are threatened by the loss of nesting habitat and illegal trapping of live parakeets for the pet trade (Cañizares personal observations).

One of the healthiest remaining wild populations of Cuban Parakeet is in Trinidad Mountains in the Guamuhaya Mountain massif. Representative localities in this region include La Sierrita, San Blas, Las Canas, Yaguanabo and El Colorado, Mayari, El Mamey, Hanabanilla, Jibacoa, Topes de Collantes, Guanayara, Cuatro Vientos and Alturas de Banao or Lomas de Banao. In this region, Cuban Parakeets, along with Cuban Parrot (Amazona leucocephala), nest on karst cliffs.

Cuban Parakeet also is found in the center of the province of Villa Clara, Managed Floristic Reserve Sabanas de Santa Clara, which apparently is a transit area for these birds from some of the nesting localities mentioned above.

The savannas of southern Sancti Spíritus - Camagüey constitutes a long stretch of palm savannas where Cuban Parakeet can be observed at the mouth of rivers and Higuanojo and Agabama. The parakeet also can be found at Cagüeira, Palmar de Romero, Palo Viejo, Júcaro and Vertientes. We do not know the exact status of the wild populations of this area, however, or of potential threats to this population, because of the difficulty to access this region.

Cuban Parakeets at Alturas de Najasa are probably one of the most isolated and healthy populations with good numbers in the Island of Cuba. Here the species nests in Royal Palms (Roystonea regia) in a secondary tropical broadleaf forest with some degree of human disturbance. In 1995 this population was estimaged as 280 - 300 individuals (Regalado 1997), although we believe that today this figure is much lower. During 4-6 April 2010 a total of 17 individuals of this species where observed at the Belem Field station in the Managed Resource Protected Area Sierra del Chorrillo in the Camaguey Province (Iñigo-Elias personsal observation).

The Cauto River region has the largest known breeding population of the Cuban Parakeet today. We know two breeding areas within the flooded savannas with high density of Sabal and Copernicia palms. The largest breeding group is at Monte Cabaniguán with an estimated population of about 200 individuals. A second flock nests in the Birama region, also with Copernicia palms, in an area of 200 ha. Here the population is estimated between 80 and 100 individuals. In these localities some birds have been banded (Cañizares unpublished data) and these have been observed at San Joaquin area, about 30 km northwest of the nesting area.

In eastern Cuba the parakeet historically was reported from the Holguin (e.g., Gibara in the Sierra de Santa Maria) and Santiago de Cuba provinces (e.g., Bayate along the Rio Bayate and main railway line).  Currently, however,  the only extant population in this region occurs in Guantanamo province (in the Guantanamo Basin to the eastern end in the Baracoa area, Rio Jaguaní Rio Moa, the lowlands Cuchillas del Toa Biosphere Reserve, La Melba and Bahia Taco) (Barbour 1943, 1945; Iñigo Elias personal observations 2004 and 2010, Fong et al. 2005, and museum specimens at the American Museum of Natural History and Louisiana State University Museum of Natural Science). This is the most extensive forest and mountainous region inhabited by the species. Alayón Garcia in 1987 (in González et al. 2006) reported the presence of the Cuban Parakeet among avifauna observed at the Cupeyal Nature Reserve, Guantanamo, Cuba. However, these last authors did not find Cuban Parakeets in their surveys in 2005 (González et al. 2006). Population surveys were conducted and monitoring reproduction activities observed at the National Park "Alejandro de Humboldt" (Begue 1997). This author also reported the presence of Cuban Parakeet in several locations in Mayari Arriba (Tumba Siete, Mícara, San Nicolas, and the Punta y Pan de Azúcar). Unlike the rest of Cuba, here, as well as in the Sagua-Baracoa area, Cuban Parakeet breeds in tree cavities in well-preserved habitats in the forest interior and the edges of large rivers. During February 12 to 18, 2004 Iñigo-Elias (personal observations) documented several flocks of this species with up to 27 individuals feeding along the riparian forest canopy along the Jaguaní River and Cocalito stream in the Cuchillas del Toa Biosphere Reserve, Guantanamo Province, Cuba. On 27 February 2010, a flock of 11 individuals was observed crossing the Rio Toa along the dirt road that runs parallel to the river from the bridge at the mouth of the Toa River to the village Boca de Quibiján (Iñigo-Elias personal observations).

Several authors mentioned the presence of the species in different localities of western Cuba as de Guanahacabibes Peninsula, La Mulata (apparently Rangel, Pinar del Rio) and Pan de Guajaibón (Rutten 1934, Collar et al. 1992), but the current status of these populations or of parakeet habitat is not known.

There is no known naturalized population outside the Cuban Archipelago.

The Cuban Parakeet breeds in two different habitats. The first is savannas near the coast with isolated trees and plenty of palms. The second breeding habitat is the tropical evergreen and semi-deciduous forest in the mountains between sea level and 1000 meters above sea level. Royal Palm (Roystonea regia) is frequently found in both habitats, and is the primary tree selected for nesting Cuban Parakeet, in cavities created by other species such as woodpeckers (Cañizares and Iñigo-Elias personal observations).

The flooded grasslands and savanna habitat is one that has greatly expanded over the last 200 years by human agricultural and ranching activities across the lowlands of Cuba. These savannas, natural and human induced, are primarily on gleisoles type soils (poorly drained) and vertisols (clay) witha  high diversity and abundance of palms of the genera Sabal and Copernicia and Roystonea regia and plenty of palms of the genera Sabal and Copernicia. Examples of this vegetation can be found in the Birama region, the Cautious River Delta, and in the Bermejas open areas in the Zapata Swamp. The Delta del Cauto is the largest habitat found today in Cuba for the Cuban Parakeet and one of the most important wetlands in the Caribbean islands flooded grasslands, dominated as Cladium chinense, Cyperus spp., Eleocharis interstincta, Saccharum giganteum, Isoetes palustris, Paspalum giganteum, Thypha dominguensis and Thalia geniculata. This region has a marked difference between the dry and rainy seasons. Annual temperatures range between 24-26 ° C. Rainfall during the wetter months (May to October) can be between 800-1200 mm, but during the driest months near 200 mm (December to April) (Núñez Jiménez 1965, Borhidi 1991, Reyes and Cantillo 2007, Cañizares unpublished data).  Cuban Parakeets forage for food in the dense tropical evergreen and semi-deciduos forest patches and often nest in the Royal Palm near the ecotone of the forest and savanna (Gundlach 1876, Barbour 1945, Forshaw 1989, Collar et al 1992, Cañizares personal observations).

The second habitat of Cuban Parakeet are the tropical forests on the eastern part of the island of Cuba, particularly in the Cuchillas del Toa Biosphere Reserve including the National Park Humboldt riparian upland rainforests below 1000 meters (Fong et al. 2005, Iñigo-Elias personal observations 2004 and 2010). This region is the wettest area of Cuba with a rainfall above 3,400 mm per year at La Melba locality and 3,649 mm per year at Boca del Rio Jaguaní. The highest precipitation months are from October to January with a second peak during the month of May. This region also has the highest relative humidity values, between 90 and 95%. This lowland rainforest grows on metamorphic complex rocks and is the largest section in the Toa and Jaguaní basins. The topography is very uneven, some slopes with of 40º or more. Ridges (cuchillas, or "blades") here are very sharp. Generally the tropical forest in this region has two strata. The upper layer with 35 meters tall, with a few emergent trees above 45 m tall (Carapa guianensis). The second layer is up to 20 to 25 m tall. The upper forest layer is mostly a community of trees including Carapa guianensis, Guarea guidonia, Ocotea floribunda, Zanthoxylum martinicense, Schefflera morototoni, Sapium jamaicense and isolated Roystonea regia. The lower strata is primarly composed of trees such as Prestoea acuminate, Oxandra laurifolia, Cecropia schreberiana, and Calyptronoma plumeriana (Borhidi 1991, Fong et al. 2005).

One of the most abundant bird species in the Cuban Archipelago before the arrival of Europeans now has become a rare and endangered species with very isolated populations that are declining in the wild. Population declines and extirpation of the species has been partly due to the traffic of live birds for the pet trade in the country and for export to Europe (Orbigny 1839, Gundlach 1876, Vilaro 1880, Bang and Zappey 1905, Clark 1905, Todd 1916, Rutten 1934, Barbour 1943, 1945) and also due to the destruction or modification of the native habitat of broadleaf tropical evergreen and semideciduous forests with palms.

The natural habitat where this species mostly occurred is the evergreen and semi deciduous tropical forests with dense palms, as exist today in the lowlands of the Cauto River and tropical savannas (Orbigny 1839, Gundlach 1876, Todd 1916, Cañizares 2012). The rise of the sugar industry in Cuba between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with the constant increase of agriculture and livestock, stimulated the destruction and fragmentation of most of the savannas and lowland forests of the Island of Cuba (Núñez Jiménez 1965, Borhidi 1991). Studying vegetation composition and plant community successions,  it is possible to deduce that at the same time that human activity was affecting the areas of evergreen and semideciduous tropical forest and opening more land for crops and livestock, the Royal Palm (R. regia) expanded, creating conditions for small flocks of Cuban Parakeet in secondary habitats.

The most protected areas on Cuba, althougn not free from historical and current human activities, also are the areas with the best populations of Cuban Parakeet today (Aguilar 2010 ). Most breeding sites for the species are highly threatened with flocks of 30 or less individuals per locality and possibly with very low recruitment rate per year or even zero in some places. This is due to the low availability of breeding sites, destruction and looting of nesting cavities and the harvesting of adult and primarily chicks of Cuban Parakeet for the local pet trade.

Cuban Parakeet at the "Mogotes de Jumagua" was managed succesfully for conservation in 1994-2000. Today, however, the habitat and wild population have the same problems (e.g., habitat loss and some illegal capture of live young parakeets) as before the management program. The best population in is in Lomas de Cunagua, Ciego de Avila, but recently we learned that one of the two nesting sites in this area was lost because of removal of nesting palms used by the parakeets (Galvez et al. 1999, Cañizares et al. 2006, Cañizares unpublished data).

There are no published reports of possible fossil records of Cuban Parakeet.