ABUNDANCE, HABITAT USE, AND MOVEMENTS OF BLUE-WINGED MACAWS (PRIMOLIUS MARACANA) AND OTHER PARROTS IN AND AROUND AN ATLANTIC FOREST RESERVE

Abstract

The Blue-winged Macaw (Primolius maracana) has disappeared from most of southern Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay; its remaining southern stronghold is the 2,179-ha Caetetus Reserve, São Paulo state, Brazil. We estimated the macaw's population inside the reserve (88 individuals) and examined how it and other parrots use the extra-reserve landscape, which is dominated by coffee plantations and pasturelands. Flight activity of the macaw and Scaly-headed Parrot (Pionus maximiliani) declined with distance from Caetetus, although many macaws flew to the vicinity of the reserve to roost. Two other species, Canary-winged Parakeet (Brotogeris versicolurus) and White-eyed Parakeet (Aratinga leucophthalmus), used the landscape independent of the reserve itself. We recorded parrots in 90% of our 1-km2 study plots outside (<12 km) the reserve, but no species was recorded using pasture, coffee or rubber/orange plantations, or scrub habitats, which composed 80% of the landscape around the reserve. Only four habitat types were used by any species. Primary and secondary forests were the habitats most preferred; Eucalyptus plantation habitat was the only totally anthropogenic habitat used. Clearly, protection, and preferably augmentation, of forest cover around Caetetus may be crucial for the macaw's survival at this important site.