Aratinga nana
olive-throated parakeet

Olive-throated parakeets are found from Jamaica to the southern tip of Central America. The subspecies A. nana nana is native to Jamaica. (Bond, 1961; Downer and Sutton, 1990)

Members of this species frequent forests along watercourses and semi-arid/humid forests divided by water openings. This species is widespread in wooded hills, mountain slopes at lower elevations, cultivations and gardens. They can live in elevations as high as 700 meters and have been found primarily in Jamaica but can also be found in St. Thomas, The Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Mexico, and Central America. (Bond, 1961)

Aratinga nana are very colorful birds. They are green on their head, back, and tail and their throat and upper breast area are olive, hence the name olive-throated parakeets. Their eyes are orange and the bare skin around the eye is a cream color. Lower on the body they are more olive, and their feet are grey. Younger A. nana tend to have dark irises. They are readily distinguished from other Jamaican parrots by their smaller size, pointed tail, slender body, and rapid flight. Aratinga nana have bills which are large, hard, and curved downward. On average, they are usually 30 cm long and they have a wingspan of 60 cm. (Arndt et al., 2000; Bond, 1961; Downer and Sutton, 1990; Hilty, 1994; Leinneweber, 1996)

The lifespan for A. nana is not known, but parrots generally live for many years. (Ramel, 2003)

Little information is available regarding the general behaviors of this species. Conures (Aratinga) generally fly throughout their home range in medium-sized flocks, and when they breed, they mainly interact with their mate. (Leinneweber, 1996)

Home Range

There is no information regarding the home range of this species.

Although there was no specific data on the communication behavior of Aratinga nana one can infer that they use sound as a primary tool in communicating with one another. The contact call of the related Aratinga canicularis is a single continuous note of roughly 200 ms duration whose signal energy lies primarily in the frequency range from 500 Hz to 8 kHz. Males use thecontact call for mating. Each bird produced its own unique signature contact call. Parrots also have flight calls which make it possible to exchange information on location of resources like food and shelter. (Bond, 1961; Cortopassi and Bradbury, 2000; Hilty, 1994)

Aratinga nana feed mostly on fruits and vegetables. They are primarily frugivores and granivores. They eat buds and fruits of many trees , e.g. Ticus spp., red birch, Erythrina, Spathodea, and cultivated crops. Because of their strong bill and muscular tongue they are able to seek out fruits and break seeds that would otherwise be difficult for other animals to crack. They associate in flocks to share information about food; like flight calls and frequent chatter between flying birds and those in fruit trees exchanging information. When feeding, parrots are methodical and slow-moving, using their bills as extra "hands" when searching for ripe fruit. (Bond, 1961; Downer and Sutton, 1990; Hilty, 1994; Voren, 1994)

Many plants have built up chemical and mechanical defenses to ward off any possible herbivores. Parrots, though, have become practically immune to these plant's defenses. To avoid mechanical barriers, parrots' bills have evolved the ability to crush the largest seeds and destroy most of the seeds they ingest. To fight the chemical defenses of plants, they digest clay from riverbanks to detoxify the toxic chemicals in the seed/fruit. Alternatively, they avoid poisioning themselves by eating small amounts of toxic seeds and combining that with a larger amount of harmless seeds, therefore substantially decreasing the potential harm. (del Hoyo, Elliot, and Sargatal, 1997; Hilty, 1994)

Tropical rainforests are green all year long and the increased occurrence of green feathers in tropical areas suggest that this color serves as an anti-predation adaptation. The green coloration allows them to move through the rainforest without being noticed. (Cubas, 1996; Hilty, 1994)

This species of birds, whose feeding habits include eating buds, fruits of many trees, and cultivated crops often becomes a pest. Parrots are the most persistant immature-seed predators in the rainforest and make it hard for farmers to harvest crops thoroughly. They also are are predators to plants and fruit trees by interrupting and disrupting a tree's dispersal strategy and hindering germination. Parrots, though, make it possible for other organisms in their ecological community to eat. When lurking through the rainforest canopy, avoiding predators, parrots often drop some of the fruits and seeds that they have been collecting. This allows smaller organisms that are not in the canopy like termites to eat. They also disperse the seeds of many plants. (Bond, 1961; Cubas, 1996; Schubot, 1992)

Ecologically, Aratinga nana are seen as pests to farmers who cultivate crops. (Bond, 1961; Hilty, 1994)

People often have parrots as pets. They are the most important group in the wildlife trade economically, and represented a F.O.B. (free on board, used when shipping various species and entrusting the carrier with all responsibility) value of about $ 827,757 in 1997. This value decreased to about $ 450,004 in 2000 because of smaller numbers being exported. Aratinga nana are also important in attracting tourists with hotel perks in the Caribbean and Tropical areas offering a free bird tour with your reservations. (WWF- Guiana, 2001)

Aratinga nana do not have special status on the IUCN Red List. They also don't have any special status on the Endangered Species Act list and the United States Migratory Act. But Aratinga nana, also known as the "olive-throated parakeet" are listed in Appendix II of CITES. One reason given for the downward trend seen in their population since 1997 is deforestation. (Meijer, 1997)