Birds of the Botanic Gardens

Imperial Parrot: Amazona imperialis; Local name: Sisserou;
Family: Psittacidae (Parrots, Parakeets and Macaws)

Description: The national bird of Dominica, endemic to the island and the only place where it is found; a magnificent bird with beautiful green and purple plumage; large, compact, sturdy-looking, 46-51 cm long (18-20 in); scaly, purplish face, and purplish-black head; dark, sometimes grey, hooked bill; eyes red with orange-red eye-rings; neck deep purplish-blue, with back darkish green; wings mostly green, with red shoulder patch; underparts dominantly purple; tail red and green-tipped, with undertail purplish black; legs short and grey; feeds on young shoots, nuts, seeds and fruit; generally shy and secretive, but very noisy during mating season (March-August); found mainly between 600 and 1,300 metres elevation (2,000-4,200 ft), the Imperial, largest and most magnificent of Amazons, is on the world list of protected birds, and is protected by law in Dominica; numbers had been declining due to hunting, habitat reduction and hurricanes; now increasing due to new law and establishment of the Morne Diablotin and Morne Trois Pitons National Parks; while natural habitat is high up in the mountains, several specimens are kept caged on view in the Gardens; click  here  and  here  to listen to its calls (compliments of  3-Rivers Eco-Lodge), the latter recording has the Scaly-naped Pigeon/Ramye cooing in background.

References:
Arlington James, Stephen Durand and Bertrand Jno.Baptiste. Dominica’s Birds. Forestry, Wildlife and Parks Division, Ministry of Agriculture and the Environment, Dominica, 2005
Wikipedia. Imperial Parrot. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, Nov. 2006 (en.wikipedia.org)
Dana Sarris. Dominica’s Imperial and Red-necked Parrots. The Parrot Society UK, Berkhamsted, UK n.d. (theparrotsocietyuk.org).