Puerto Rican Parrots, Fitness Month 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One Icons

Summary: Amiability, attractiveness and audacity augur auspiciously for Puerto Rican parrots as Fitness Month 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One icons May 2019.

"When in flight, some of the PR Parrots show their beautiful blue primary feathers. En español: Algunas cotorras muestran sus bellas plumas primarias azules al volar."; photo by Jan Paul Zegarra, Biologist, USFWS; Bosque del Estado, Maricao, Puerto Rico; Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016, 11:13:58: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Regional Office (USFWS/Southeast), Public Domain, via Flickr

Acting amiably about American governmental assistance and appearing anywhere after Hurricane Maria September 2019 are auspicious for any acknowledgment of Puerto Rican parrots as Fitness Month 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One icons.

Representative Darren Soto, Democrat for Florida's 9th Congressional district, brought a bill for Puerto Rico Five-One statehood before the 116th United States Congress March 28, 2019. The Puerto Rico Five-One statehood bill, if Congressional considerations conclude without changing its components, confers automatic admission of the Caribbean island Commonwealth into the United States of America. April and May, as respective Earth Month 2019 and Fitness Month 2019, do Puerto Rico Five-One statehood no disservice since they draw out Puerto Rican parrots.

The Bosque Nacional de Luquillo ("[17th-century chief] Loquillo's National Forest"), bosque enano ("dwarf forest") and Centro de Visitantes Palo Colorado ("Colored Stick Visitor Center") entertain parrots.

January through July furnish the life cycles that figure maximally at 12 years for Puerto Rican parrots with breeding months during the annual, six-month dry season.

Female Puerto Rican parrots, physically and sexually mature as captive three-year-old and as wild four-year-olds, gestate one two- to four-egg seasonal brood for cavity, secondary nests. Paired Puerto Rican parrots have life-long, year-round home and territorial ranges where fathers-to-be help hunt for canopy cavities or cliffside holes to hone into unlined nests. Mothers-to-be incubate white eggs 24 to 28 days at 22.96- to 49.21-foot (7- to 15-meter) heights above cliff or tree bases while fathers-to-be implement foraging itineraries.

Adults during parenting, fledglings and pairs between parenting seasons respectively juggle 164.04-foot (50-meter), 24.71- to 84.02-acre (10- to 34-hectare, 3,071.52-acre (1,243-hectare foraging, home and territorial ranges.

Blind, deaf, helpless, naked hatchlings know adult colors, apart gray-based upper mandibles and white-yellow bills, before they know how to fly as 60- to 66-day-old fledglings.

Fitness Month 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One adult icons log brown irises; white eye-rings; red foreheads; tan-yellow beaks, feet, legs and underparts; and black-scalloped green feathers. Mature 11.02- to 11.81-inch- (28- to 30-centimeter-) long, 8.82- to 11.29-ounce (250- to 320-gram) Puerto Rican parrots manifest bright blue wing and red-based green-yellow tail feathers. The Psittaciformes (from Latin psittacus, "parrot" and -fōrmis, "shaped") order member, named scientifically Amazona vittata (from Latin Amazona, "Amazon" and vitttāta, "banded"), nectars on tree-canopy flowers.

The Fitness Month 2019 and Puerto Rico Five-One icons, observed by Pieter Boddaert (May 26, 1730-May 6, 1795), occupy 656.17- to 2,700.13-foot (200- to 823-meter) altitudes.

Bark-, bud-, flower-, fruit-, leaf-, nut-, seed-, twig-eating, nesting, roosting Puerto Rican parrots prioritize candlewood (Dacryodes excelsa), laurel magnolia (Magnolia splendens) and leatherwood (Cyrilla racemiflora) trees.

Bertero's wild coffee (Psychotria berteriana), black parrot (Matayba domingensis), brindleberry (Micropholis garciniaefolia), cross-stick (Rheedia portoricensis) and Grisebach's attorney (Clusia clusioides) qualify as additional, forageable host trees. Gundlach's attorney (Clusia gundlachii), ice-cream-bean (Inga vera), mountain-ashdaisy (Piptocarpha tetrantha), mountain-johnnyberry (Miconia sintenisii), mountain-palm (Prestoea montana), shingle-plant (Marcgravia sintenisii) and wide-leaved spurge (Alchornea latifolia) remain hosts. Bugling, squawking, whistling Puerto Rican parrots, with wings unusually below body axes, sustain 18.64-mile (30-kilometer) hourly speeds from predatory hawks (Buceo), rats (Rattus) and thrashers (Margarops).

Iguacas de Borinquén (Puerto Rican parrots of the brave-peopled land), turn up as Fitness Month 2019, Puerto Rico Five-One and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service-tended icons.

Puerto Rican parrot (iguaca de Borinquén) chick; El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico; Tuesday, March 21, 2006: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Regional Office (USFWS/Southeast), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

"When in flight, some of the PR Parrots show their beautiful blue primary feathers. En español: Algunas cotorras muestran sus bellas plumas primarias azules al volar."; photo by Jan Paul Zegarra, Biologist, USFWS; Bosque del Estado, Maricao, Puerto Rico; Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2016, 11:13:58: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Regional Office (USFWS/Southeast), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwssoutheast/30512089963/

Puerto Rican parrot (iguaca de Borinquén) chick; El Yunque National Forest, Puerto Rico; Tuesday, March 21, 2006: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Southeast Regional Office (USFWS/Southeast), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwssoutheast/5840559434/

For further information:

Baicich, Paul J.; and Colin J.O. Harrison. 2005. Nests, Eggs, and Nestlings of North American Birds. Princeton NJ; and Oxford, England, UK: Princeton University Press, Princeton Field Guides. Second edition.

BirdLife International 2019. "Amazona vittata." The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2018: e.T22686239A130572716. dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22686239A130572716.en.
Available @ https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22686239/130572716

Boddaert, M. (Monsieur) (Pieter). 1783. "792. . . .Psittacus vittatus mihi." Table des Planches Enluminéez d'Histoire Naturelle de M. D'Aubenton: 49. Utrecht (Netherlands): n.p., MDCCLXXXIII.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/27822669

Burgos, John. 2011. "Amazona vittata." The Animal Diversity Web (On-Line) > Browse Animalia > Animals > Search ADW > Taxon Information.
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Forshaw, Joseph M. "Psittaciformes Parrots (Psittacidae)." In: Michael Hutchins, Jerome A. Jackson, Walter J. Bock and Donna Olendorf, editors. Grzimek's Animal Life Encyclopedia. Second edition. Volume 9, Birds II: 275-280. Farmington Hills MI: Gale Group, 2002.

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Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/puerto-rican-todies-earth-month-2019.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 20 April 2019. "Puerto Rican Nightjars: Earth Month 2019, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Saturday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/puerto-rican-nightjars-earth-month-2019.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 14 April 2019. "Puerto Rican Screech-Owls Earth Month 2019, Puerto Rico Five-One Icons." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/puerto-rican-screech-owls-earth-month.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 7 April 2019. "Earth Month, Puerto Rican Green Mango Hummingbirds and Sea Hibiscus." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/04/earth-month-puerto-rican-green-mango.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 31 March 2019. "Puerto Rican Emerald Hummingbirds and Puerto Rican Statehood." Earth and Space News. Sunday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2019/03/puerto-rican-emerald-hummingbirds-and.html

"Puerto Rican Parrot." Endangered Species Coalition > Animal Type > Birds.
Available @ http://www.endangered.org/animal/puerto-rican-parrot/

"Puerto Rican Parrot Amazona vittata." In: Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Ithaca NY: Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Available @ https://neotropical.birds.cornell.edu/Species-Account/nb/species/purpar1/overview

"Puerto Rican Parrot (Amazona vittata)." U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service > Environmental Conservation Online System > Public Applications > Species Reports > Listed Species Reports > All Animals.
Available @ https://ecos.fws.gov/ecp0/profile/speciesProfile?spcode=B00L

Vuilleumier, François, editor-in-chief; and Paul Sweet, consultant. 2016. American Museum of Natural History Birds of North America. Revised edition. New York NY: DK Publishing.