Abstract
The Red-tailed Amazon (Amazona brasiliensis) has been a rare bird with a restricted wild population for many decades, at the end of the 1980's it was estimated that the wild population at that time numbered only 3,000 and was declining. This species survives from a small coastal region of Sao Paulo and adjacent Parana states, in Brazil, where it migrates daily between the Atlantic forest feeding areas and the Mangrove forests which provide the roosting and breeding sites for this species.A principle figure in the study of the Red-tailed Amazon in the wild has been Pedro Scherer Neto, who has been working with this species since 1982. He has been able to establish accurate estimates of the remaining wild population size by carrying out a census throughout the habitat of the species natural distribution. The most effective area to survey the Red-tailed Amazon is by undertaking a census of birds at known overnight roosting sites, which Pedro Scherer Neto has been doing for several years. In 1'994 he experimented with the building of two observation platforms at forest canopy level close to known roosting sites, the result was extremely effec- tive with much improved census observation becoming possible. The platforms also provided a good opportunity to undertake biological observation of this species as an additional benefit.
In the beginning of 1995 we received a communication from Pedro Scherer Neto who asked if the Loro Parque Foundation would be willing to fund the costs of two more observation platforms to further aid the census of the remaining wild population. We have been happy to provide $1,500 (US) to cover the material costs of these two additional observation platforms, with the construction being undertaken by the staff of the Natural History Museum.
The result of this project should be improved census observation of the Red-tailed Amazon which is regarded as essential in the future close monitoring of this species. With a local education programme already running and local people being encouraged to act as guards for known roosting sites, then it can be hoped that the remaining wild population will remain stable and can be more closely studied in the next few years. •