Urban trees support diverse wildlife, as Jamaican biologist and naturalist Damany Calder pointed out in Instagram this week with his observation of the Yellow-Billed Parrot (Amazona collaria), endemic to Jamaica and vulnerable to extinction, in a Black Olive tree (Terminalia buceras) in the middle of a busy parking lot of a shopping center in Kingston!
In this fantastic video that Damany took you can hear just how busy the area is while the parrot seems perfectly content hanging out and eating fruits in the tree.
As Damany points out, trees in shopping centers and other urban spaces, like the cemetery that the birds flew off to, are opportunities to increase habitat for urban wildlife:
Do you have a photo or video of an urban species doing something unusual? What about a rare plant or animal that you were surprised to find in a city? If so, let Lindsay know or Tweet at us and you could be featured as a future observation of the week!
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- Parallel Urban Adaptation from Phenotype to Genotype in Anolis Lizards - January 19, 2023
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