'Hello!' Humans find parrots fascinating: their often dazzling plumage, their acrobatic and amusing antics and their ability to mimic human speech makes the parrot stand out from other birds. And it is precisely these characteristics that make parrots so popular as pets and the reason why they usually command a large audience when kept in captivity in zoos.
'Who's a pretty boy then?' Well it soon won't be the parrot because the list of extinct parrots grows longer by the minute and many of those that do remain are endangered. The Red List has 94 species of parrots, considered to be vulnerable, endangered or threatened with extinction and many more sub-species that are equally at risk of disappearing forever.
Clearing of tropical rainforest for development or agriculture has destroyed a lot of the parrot's habitat, making it difficult for them to feed and breed and snatching birds from the wild for the pet trade has added to the problem. According to Animal Aid 88% of the parrots, parakeets, lovebirds etc. imported into Britain between 1995 and 2000 were wild-caught. And of course the birds actually being sold in the pet shop are just the tip of the iceberg. For every bird that reaches a pet shop three other birds have died, either when they were being captured, or whilst they were being confined, quarantined, or transported. Many birds are sold illegally and the rarer the birds become the more money people are willing to pay for them. In addition, some parrots are grain eaters and are viewed as pests, often being killed by farmers when they attack their crops.
Where Parrots Occur:
Most species of parrots live in South and Central America, with over 70 species living in Brazil alone. But they are also found in smaller numbers in India, Africa, South East Asia, Australasia, the Philippines and New Zealand.
Some Threatened Parrot Species:
Amazons were once prevalent in the Caribbean, but now two species are extinct and others are seriously endangered. For example only about seventy Puerto Rican Amazons remain on the Lesser Antilles and in the Dominican Republic there's only about fifty Imperial Amazons left because of plantation building and hurricanes. The Red-Tailed Amazon, Yellow-Headed Amazon and Green-Cheeked Amazon are just some of the other Amazons currently listed as endangered.
Macaws are also suffering. There are now 16 living species of macaw, although one of these, the Spix's macaw, is teetering on the verge of extinction with just one individual bird left. In fact over half of macaw species are now on the endangered species list and seven other species are at risk of being added to the list unless trade in wild-caught birds is regulated.
Macaws are often considered to be the largest of flying parrots. Their long tails certainly add to their length, but if weight is taken into account too then cockatoos often weigh more, making them larger. The largest macaw, the hyacinth macaw, can easily reach a metre in length and a captive-bred adult bird may weigh as much as 1,250 grams.
The hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) is a handsome bird, deep cobalt blue in colour, with a golden eye ring and bill base. It is found in Brazil and easternmost Bolivia, where it lives mainly on seasonally flooded grassland. Unfortunately, it is becoming a rarity, with fewer than 3,000 birds left in Brazil, where it feeds on nuts from the palms Suagrus commosa and Attalea funifera. This decline is mainly due to a reduction in the numbers of palm trees and to incessant poaching by illegal traders. Hyacinth macaws can fetch a good price in the illegal pet trade and are also hunted for food. In addition their feathers are used to make Indian head-dresses and decorative pieces to sell to tourists. The Foundation for the Preservation of the Hyacinth Macaw was set up in 1991 to try to save these magnificent birds from extinction.
The Green-Winged Macaw (right) lives in tropical
lowlands, bordering the jungle.
The Vulnerable Blue and Yellow Macaw (above)
(Ara ararauna) is found in Brazil, Paraguay
and Bolivia, where it likes to nest in dead
palm trees.Demand for the often brilliantly coloured larger macaws is high and the blue and gold and scarlet species are frequently kept in captivity.
Cockatoos are not regarded as true parrots, belonging to the family Cactuidae rather than Psittacidae. These crested birds have strong bills and blunt tails and eat grubs. They sometimes invade tree plantations where they can damage trees as they search for grubs in rotten wood. The salmon-crested cockatoo from Indonesia is on the endangered species list and the Leadbeater's cockatoo (Major Mitchell's) is becoming endangered as the western Australian bush becomes settled. The red-tailed black cockatoo is threatened with extinction.
The heaviest parrot of all is the flightless, nocturnal, Kakapo, or owl parrot, weighing in at almost 3.5 kilograms. It was once common on the islands of the New Zealand Archipelago, but humans have exploited it both for its bright green feathers and for food. Predators, such as cats, dogs, rats, weasels, stoats, kiore, the Australian brush possum and dogs have also killed off many of these birds. By 1995 kakapo numbers had reached an all time low of 51. So a team from the New Zealand Wildlife Service and Department of Conservation stepped in to save the kakapo from extinction. Surviving birds were collected up and moved to predator-free Codfish and Maud islands and the Kakapo Recovery Plan was set up in 1996 to monitor these last-remaining birds. Under this programme the birds receive regular health checks and supplementary feeding with foods such as walnuts and almonds. Traps are also set to safeguard them against stoats invading the island. Kakapo breed only every few years when certain native plants such as the southern beech and rimu mast. Now, as soon as the birds start to breed their nests and eggs are monitored and any chicks that are failing to thrive are removed and reared by hand. Each nest has its own doorbell, which rings when the parent bird leaves the nest and chicks are covered with an electric blanket until the bird returns. Oddly enough the birds don't seem to mind this human interference! Twenty-six chicks have been produced so far and kakapo numbers have now risen to 86. It is estimated that it will take about 15 years to build up their numbers to about 200, but the kakapo's future is now looking much brighter and thanks to this recovery plan, which continues until 2005, it is unlikely to become extinct.
A recovery plan was set up in 1984 to try to save the orange-bellied parrot from extinction. By 1985 there were only 100 to 200 of these birds left in Australia. This decline in numbers has largely been brought about by the disappearance of the bird's habitat, especially the salt marshes where it over winters and by predation by foxes and feral cats. Efforts are now being made to protect its habitat and a breeding programme has produced 200 young, 69 of which have been released back into the wild. However, it is still listed as critically endangered.
The St Lucia parrot (Jacquot), which as its name implies is found on St Lucia in the West Indies, is also endangered and its numbers were reduced to a mere hundred in 1975 due to shooting and deforestation. The St Lucia Forestry and Lands Department banned hunting, protected large areas of rainforest and introduced an island-wide education programme and since these conservation measures have been introduced there has been almost a tripling of numbers of wild birds.
Because of its great ability to imitate the human voice the African grey parrot has always been immensely popular as a pet and tens of thousands of these highly intelligent birds are exported from Africa each year. In the Cameroons African greys are still plentiful and are often regarded as pests, but in Mali and Togo they are now very scarce. The World Parrot Trust estimates that between 1995 and 1999 one hundred and seventy five thousand wild African grey parrots were legally traded.
Some endangered species of parrots are listed in Table 1. In addition there are many other species that are listed as vulnerable on the Red List. These include military, blue-winged, blue and gold and Buffon macaws, salmon-crested and white cockatoos and Antipodes, Hispaniolan and Cuban parakeets. Please note that this table was compiled in 2002. For more up-to-date information on the status of a particular species of parrot consult IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species (see web section).
TABLE 1. SOME ENDANGERED PARROTS
COMMON NAME
LATIN NAME
STATUS
PUERTO RICAN AMAZON
Amazona vittata
Critically Endangered
NIGHT PARROT
Geopsittacus occidentalis
Critically Endangered
FUERTES'S PARROT
Hapalopsittaca fuertesi
Critically Endangered
ORANGE-BELLIED PARROT
Neophema chrysogaster
Critically Endangered
YELLOW-EARED CONURE
Ognorhynchus icterotis
Critically Endangered
KAKAPO (OWL PARROT)
Strigops habroptilus
Critically Endangered
LEAR'S MACAW
Anodorhynchus leari
Critically Endangered
BLUE-THROATED MACAW
Ara glaucogularis
Critically Endangered
SPIX'S MACAW (E)
Cyanopsitta spixii
Critically Endangered
LESSER SULPHUR-CRESTED COCKATOO
Cacatua sulphurea
Critically Endangered
RED-VENTED COCKATOO
Cacatua haematuropygia
Critically Endangered
MAURITIUS PARAKEET
Psittacula eques
Critically Endangered
GLAUCOUS MACAW
Anodorhynchus glaucus
Critically Endangered
RED-TAILED AMAZON (RED-TAILED PARROT)
Amazona brasiliensis
Endangered
IMPERIAL AMAZON
Amazona imperialis
Endangered
YELLOW-HEADED AMAZON
Amazona oratrix
Endangered
RED-BROWED AMAZON
Amazona rhodocorytha
Endangered
VINACEOUS AMAZON
Amazona vinacea
Endangered
GREEN-CHEEKED AMAZON
Amazona viridigenalis
Endangered
NORFOLK ISLAND PARAKEET
Cyanoramphus cookii
Endangered
PINK-BILLED PARROTFINCH
Erythrura kleinschmidti
Endangered
RUSTY-FACED PARROT
Hapalopsittaca amazonina
Endangered
SWIFT PARROT (E)
Lathamus discolor
Endangered
SANGIHE HANGING- PARROT
Loriculus catamene
Endangered
FLORES HANGING-PARROT
Loriculus flosculus
Endangered
GOLDEN-SHOULDERED PARROT
Psephotus chrysopterygius
Endangered
THICK-BILLED PARROT
Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha
Endangered
BLACK-EARED PARROTLET
Touit melanonota
Endangered
HYACINTH MACAW
Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus
Endangered
RED-FRONTED MACAW
Ara rubrogenys
Endangered
CARNABY'S BLACK-COCKATOO
Calyptorhynchus latirostris
Endangered
GOLDEN-TAILED PARROTLET
Touit surda
Endangered
How You Can Help:
Hopefully, it is not too late to save the parrot from extinction! According to the World Parrot Trust 'the only effective and enforceable solution to this problem is to immediately cease the importation of wild caught birds into the European Union'. The EU is now the largest importer of wild caught birds and new legislation is needed to stop this cruel and unsustainable harvesting of parrots. Legislation can work. At one time the USA was the largest importer of wild-caught parrots, but it is now a non-importer because of the Wild Bird Conservation Act. You can help to stop trade in wild-caught exotic birds by signing the petition at the World Parrot Trust web site. And of course organisations such as the Foundation for the Preservation of the Hyacinth Macaw and the Department of Conservation in New Zealand are all working hard to save these parrots and rely on sponsorship, or donations, from people like you in order to carry out their work. You can make a donation at their web sites.Of course as well as stopping trade in wild birds, more also needs to be done to preserve their habitat and one way of conserving parrot habit is by encouraging ecotourism. Probably humans will never lose their fascination or admiration for the parrot! But watching wild parrots can generate a lot of money for tropical nations, as well as providing employment for local people. If well implemented, ecotourism could facilitate long-term protection of the parrot's habitat. Tropical Nature Travel organises ecotourist trips to Hyacinth Valley, Peru etc, using the profits from these trips for habitat conservation. Former trappers are employed to protect the habitat and to act as tour guides, thus earning more money than they would from harvesting wild parrots for the pet trade. The Macaw Landing Foundation also offers parrot ecotourism.
Parrot Web Sites:
- The Foundation for the Preservation of the Hyacinth Macaw
- Macaw Landing Foundation
- Wild Macaws
- The Blue Macaws
- Rosemary Low's Buffon Macaw Appeal
- The Orange-Bellied Parrot
- St. Lucia Parrot
- The World Parrot Trust
- World Parrot Trust (British Branch)
- Kakapo Recovery Plan
- PDF of Kakapo Recovery Plan
- IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
Further Reading:
- 'No Dodo' - article by Stephanie Pain. New Scientist June 1, 2002, pp 32-37.
- Outrage. Issue 127. Summer 2002 (Animal Aid). 'Close up on Wild Bird Trade' - article by Elaine Toland. See p. 18. (Tel: 01732 364546, or email: info@animalaid.org.uk.)
- Parrots: A Portrait of the Animal World by Ben Sonder (Todtri, 1997). ISBN 1-57717-067-9.