Abstract
While atte nding the AFA board meeting in late February of this year I was greeted in the lounge of the Doubletree Hotel in Dallas, Texas by Vicki Fletcher, census registrar for the Amazona Society. In Vicki's hands were ten pounds of loose papers of every size, shape and color. While over fifty contained photographs, most were notes and letters written in longhand from individuals who have green-cheeked Amazon parrots. The responses were due to a cooperative effort between the American Federation of Aviculture and the Amazona Society in collecting data about
captive status of the green-cheeked or Mexican red-headed (red-crowned) Amazon parrot (Amazona viridigenalis). According to Nigel Collar (coauthor of "Birds to Watch: the ICBP World Checklist of Threatened Birds;' ICBP Technical Publication No. 8), the parrot is ' 'endemic to a small area in northeastern Mexico and has seriously declined, owing to habitat destruction and trapping :' Due to extensive smuggling, the exact number of green-cheeked (red-crowned) Amazons in the United States is unknown. From October 1979 until June 1980, however, 3 ,279 were imported legally into the U.S. In addition,traffic data indicates that between 1977 and 1980 a total of 7,452 were imported from Mexico. Conservatively, I believe we could state that 10,000 green-cheeked (redcrowned) Amazons have entered the United States, illegally or legally, within the last decade. This is a remarkable number when one considers the small range of the species within Mexico. Even historically the species' range was less than 651 miles (north/south) and 465 miles (east/west). With large numbers in captivity and several feral populations...