Red-masked Parakeet Aratinga erythrogenys is listed as Near Threatened under criteria C1; C2a(i) on the basis that its population is suspected to number c.10,000 mature individuals and, following reports of severe local declines (Ridgely 1981, Best et al. 1995), severe negative trends are suspected to be ongoing in some areas. These declines are suspected due to unsustainable levels of trapping for the wild bird trade, both domestic and international (Best and Clarke 1991, Williams and Tobias 1994, Best et al. 1995).
Information recently relayed by J. Gilardi (in litt. 2010) suggests that the species’s status could have deteriorated in Ecuador and that trade in this species is still high in Ecuador and along the Ecuador-Peru border.
Up-to-date information is requested, including estimates of the total population size, the likely population trend and the severity of threats. The population trend should be estimated as the percentage change over 21 years (estimate of three generations). Other useful information for this species includes the maximum size of each sub-population or the percentage of the total population that forms one sub-population.
Best, B. J. and Clarke, C. T. (1991) The threatened birds of the Sozoranga region, south-west Ecuador. Cambridge, U.K.: International Council for Bird Preservation (Study Report 44).
Best, B. J., Krabbe, N., Clarke, C. T. and Best, A. L. (1995) Red-masked Parakeet Aratinga erythrogenys and Grey-cheeked Parakeet Brotogeris pyrrhoptrus: two threatened parrots from Tumbesian Ecuador and Peru?. Bird Conserv. Int. 5: 233-250.
Ridgely, R. S. (1981) The current distribution and status of mainland Neotropical parrots. Pp. 233- 384 in Pasquier, R.F., ed. Conservation of New World parrots. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press for the International Council for Bird Preservation (Techn. Publ.).
Williams, R. S. R. and Tobias, J. A. (1994) The conservation of southern Ecuador’s threatened avifauna. Cambridge, U.K.: BirdLife International (Study Report 60).