Myiopsitta monachus (Boddaert, 1783)

Turienzo, Paola & Iorio, Osvaldo Di, 2011, Insects found in birds’ nests from Argentina. Myiopsitta monachus (Boddaert, 1873) [Aves: Psittacidae], exclusive host of Psitticimex uritui (Lent & Abalos, 1946) (Hemiptera: Cimicidae), Zootaxa 3053, pp. 1-58 : 2

Nests of Myiopsitta monachus

This parrot is unique among the Psittacidae by their voluminous and communal nests ( Fig. 2). One single nest of a mating pair acts as a nesting nucleus, where successive nests of other mating pairs are posteriorly added ( Humphrey & Peterson 1978, Navarro et al. 1992, Eberhard 1996, De la Peña 2000). Therefore, communal nests often include several compartments, each with a separate entrance (Eberhard 1996) ( Fig. 2). The greatest number of separate entrances recorded in a nest was 69 ( Rizzo 1978), but also 48 ( De la Peña 2005) and 30 ( De la Peña 2000) were recorded. At the same time, communal nests are located in groups, up to 53 in a single Eucalyptus tree ( Rizzo 1978).

Each breeding chamber is provided with a bed of fresh vegetal matter, mostly leaves of the trees where the nests are located. These birds differ with most passeriform birds, as excrements are accumulated on the beds, and new beds are build above in each breeding season ( Aramburú et al. 2002). Therefore, the weight of a large communal nest can reach 150 kg ( Tala et al. 2004 –2005). M. luchsi builds stick nests anchored to the face of cliffs by twigs wedged in crevices in the rock, or hanging over the top edge of a smooth cliff, attached with twigs woven around the base of small shrubs growing at the cliff edge ( Lanning 1991).

In some cases, M. monachus adopts single nests remodelling old stick nests of some species of Furnariidae [ Aves]: Anumbius annumbi (Vieillot, 1817) ( Humphrey & Peterson 1978) , and Pseidoseisura lophotes argentina Parker, 1960 ( Nores & Nores 1994, Eberhard 1996) (Figs. 4–6). Nevertheless, these remodeled nests were used only as roosts ( Eberhard 1998), probably because they are made in general at a low altitude and on smaller trees (Turienzo & Di Iorio pers. obs.).

As M. monachus is a non-migratory bird, its nests are also used year-round for roosting ( Navarro et al. 1992). The breeding biology was studied by Navarro et al. (1992) in two populations of M. monachus catita from Córdoba. The mean clutch initiation date was 1º November (range: 12 October–21 December) and 5 November (range: 2 October–28 December). The earliest initial egg laying was recorded on 1 October and the latest on 29 October. Replacement clutches and second clutches were laid from mid-November to early January, and from late October to early February ( Navarro et al. 1992). In Santa Fe the reproductive period comprises October to December [M. m. monachus ] ( De la Peña 2005) and in Entre Ríos, the mean clutch initiation date for 1993–1994 was 16 November, while the mean date for 1994–1995 was 26 October ( Eberhard 1998).

Vertebrate inquilines in nests of M. monachus were mentioned by De Lucca (1992), Martella & Bucher (1984), Martella et al. (1985), Narosky et al. (1992) and others (Appendix IIa), some of them summarized by Turienzo & Di Iorio (2007: fig. 10).