Risk-taking behavior by a cavity-nesting parrot breeding at northern Patagonia, Argentina

Abstract

The increase in human population poses great challenges to birds inhabiting coastal areas, and studying their behavioral responses against these disturbances is an effective approach to understanding how tolerant species are. Our main goal was to describe the risk-taking behavior of breeding burrowing parrots (Cyanoliseus patagonus) against an approaching person. For this, we measured flight initiation distance (FID) and latency time of nesting burrowing parrots on a reproductive colony situated northwest of the San Matias Gulf, northern Argentine Patagonia. We also inquired how anthropic, environmental and ethological variables affected this behavior, and checked if the species´ reproductive success of the species varied against such disturbance. The mean FID estimated and the mean latency time were only affected by cloud coverage, and both increased with overcast conditions. burrowing parrots did not modify their FID throughout the breeding season, but returned to previous activities sooner as the breeding season progressed. The effect of our experimental disturbance did not affect the reproductive success of the species. Our results suggest that burrowing parrots show a tameness to the disturbance caused by a human approach, as reflected by their relatively short flight initiation distances, an effect also reported in other bird species inhabiting urban habitats.

Keywords

• Psittaciformes
• flight initiation distance
• flush distance
• behavior
• burrowing parrot