As its name suggests, this bird is found only on the island of St. Lucia in the West Indies where it lives in the central mountainous rainforest.

In the subdued light of the forest, their feathers appear dull and the parrots blend into their leafy world. But when the sunlight shines on their feathers, they display a brilliant pallet of red, green and blue.

In the early morning and evening the parrots flock on  treetops in search of food, which includes a wide variety of fruits and seeds. The birds have a range of soft liquid calls until, when disturbed, they emit raucous shrieks as an alarm.

During the months of March and June, bird four years and older pair with mates that maybe kept for life and search for a hole to nest up in old trees.

Nothing is added to the holes for nesting. The female lays one or two white eggs on the rotten wood base and incubates them for around 28 days. The chicks are born bald, blind and totally dependent on their parents for protection warmth and food. The parents regurgitate partially digested food for their young until, about 80 days when they are able to join the adults in the forest.

Much of the St. Lucia parrot’s original  habitat was lost through forest clearance for agriculture or hunting. By 1975 as few as 100 parrots remained in the wild.  At that point, the Government of St. Lucia and the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust collected  seven parrot fledglings from their nest and established a breeding programme in Jersey. Simultaneously, a Forest Department education  programme was successfully converting St. Lucians’ attitude towards their unique parrot.  In 1979,  year of the country’s independence, the St. Lucia parrot was officially named the National Bird. Further, all hunting was banned and a large area of the rainforest was declared a Parrot sanctuary.

By November 1998 fourteen (14) healthy chicks had been reared in Jersey from which the Prime Minister of St. Lucia collected two (2) young parrots  destined for St. Lucia’s own breeding programme.

Best news of all is that the decline of the wild population has been reversed, and numbers have increased tremendously since conservation measures were introduced.

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