Yellow-crested Cockatoos protected by dragons

Of Indonesia’s staggering total of 17,508 islands, the name of a relatively small one, Komodo, has been conferred ona formidable species of monitor lizard which lives there. This of course is the Komodo dragon (Varanus...

Health screening of macaws in wildlife rehabilitation centres in Costa Rica

In many places of the world where centres take in and provide professional care to sick, injured and confiscated wild animals, most will include rehabilitation as part of their mission, which implies the return of the animals to...

Improving wild parrot population estimates: the Vinaceous-breasted Parrot example

The flight calls of Vinaceous-breasted Parrots (Amazona vinacea) lingered in the chill air of the austral winter dawn in southern Brazil. However, no parrots were seen, because the dense early morning mist had not dispersed by...

How threatened in the wild is the Grey-breasted Parakeet?

In 1644 a Dutch artist painted an image which turned out to be the first record of the Grey-breasted Parakeet (Pyrrhura griseipectus), a severely threatened species endemic to north-eastern Brazil. The parakeet was formally...

Poachers positively select parrot species based on their attractiveness

News has arrived about a phenomenon that many of us suspected was true, but in practice has remained unexamined objectively until now, not least due to the difficulties of estimating species abundances in the wild. Poachers do...

Another landmark event for Philippine Cockatoo conservation

Exciting news has recently arrived of a landmark event in the Philippine Cockatoo Conservation Program (PCCP), the long-term endeavour to bring-about the recovery of this ‘Critically Endangered’ species endemic to the...

Record year for endangered Yellow-naped Amazon babies in Nicaragua project

Good news is always welcome in these trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic, and such news has recently arrived from Paso Pacífico, a Nicaraguan NGO engaged in conservation activities in that country. Paso Pacífico’s mission...

Swift Parrot decline in Hobart substantiates gloomy predictions for the species

You must really like Swift Parrots (Lathamus discolor) if throughout sixteen years you make a grand total of 20,155 observations of them. This accolade goes to Dr. Andrew Hingston of the University of Tasmania, who observed the...

The costs and rewards of conserving the Lear’s Macaw

How much does it cost to save from extinction a parrot, or any other species for that matter? There is no straight-forward answer because of the complexity...

Nest-box revolution for wild Grey-breasted Parakeets

In 2007 the Brazilian NGO Aquasis conducted museum research and exhaustive field expeditions in its historically reported distribution in north-east Brazil. The search was instigated due to the alarming decline in the area of...