Perishing Parrots

BirdLife International (2012) Species factsheet: Amazona oratrix. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org (accessed March 2012)

http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=1679

Programme for Belize (2012). Wings Project. Last updated 2012. Downloaded from

http://www.pfbelize.org/conservation/ (accessed March 2012)

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology: All About Birds (2012). Parrots in Pine Trees: A Belize Conservation Story. Downloaded from: http://www.birds.cornell.edu/roundrobin/2011/01/07/parrots-in-pine-trees-a-belize-conservation-story/ (accessed March 2012)

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology: All About Birds (2012). Preserving Wild Parrot Populations. Downloaded from: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/Page.aspx?pid=967&ac=ac (accessed March 2012)

Today I’d like to give everyone another uplifting story, one to fuel the faith we have in conservation. As we all know poaching goes against everything conservation organizations strive for; they decrease biodiversity, reduce key habitats while abusing protected areas and they make the remaining individuals of that species extremely sensitive to future human interactions. Due to the black market demand for exotic species the poachers capture animals that are typically extremely close to extinction. Currently there is an endangered species of bird called the Yellow-headed Parrot (known as Amazon Parrots to locals) that lives in Mexico, Belize, Guatemala and Honduras. They are cavity nesters in pine savannah forests and are known for their bright beautiful plumage and their ability to mimic human speech. A large impact on the reasons why these birds were declining was due to habitat loss combined with these birds becoming intensely pursued for the illegal pet trade in the mid 1970’s; these events resulted in an approximate 7,000 individuals (in 1994) left in the wild.

It was a warm summer night that a ranger on patrol in Belize came across 2 baby Yellow-headed Parrots. They were only a couple of weeks old and completely innocent on the forest floor. The ranger suspected that fleeing poachers earlier that night dropped the chicks by accident. The rangers fed and sheltered the baby chicks for weeks until they were strong enough to sleep and forage outside, then eventually survive completely in the wild, several months later. The actions the rangers took to care for the chicks were inspiring and rare.

 

Since then, Programme for Belize, a nonprofit organization, has pursued a recovery project for the Yellow-headed Parrot. However, this has been a hard task because even protected areas remain vulnerable to poachers and a decreased habitat loss due to poachers cutting down the trees to get to the parrots habitats is a major issue for future birds looking for cavity homes to breed. Proactive tactics to reduce these barriers has been to increase security and raise awareness to local communities stressing the importance of the parrot and its habitat.

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