This year I will be
talking about some of the many birds you will encounter as you walk down the World Bird Sanctuary’s exhibit line just beyond the
Wildlife Hospital. The first bird
I have chosen to talk about is not an individual, but an entire flock. They are
the Thick-billed Parrots that live on the exhibit line in a large flight cage.
Closeup of one
member of our Thick-bill flock (photo: Cathy Spahn)
The Thick-billed Parrot, Rhynchopsitta
pachyrhyncha, is a highly
endangered species. They are the
only remaining parrot that is Native to the United States. They were originally found in Arizona
and Mexico. Today they are only
found in Mexico.
Our free flying
flock of Thick-billed Parrots (photo: Gay Schroer)
The wild population of
this amazing bird number only 500 to 2,000. The Thick-billed Parrots that we
have at the World Bird Sanctuary are mostly from confiscated birds that were brought into the
United States illegally. Some individuals are from other collections of single birds, and a few
in the flock have hatched at World Bird
Sanctuary.
In
the United States, the Thick-billed Parrot was hunted to extinction. In Mexico, the biggest threats to the
existing Thick-bill populations are logging
and trapping for the pet trade. Logging
has changed the composition of the forests and
decreased the Juniper forest, which provides food and nesting cavities for
these parrots. Insects have increased due to climate change created by
the logging, which in turn changes the habitat. The climate change and
damage to the forest from both insects and logging have then resulted in an
increase in the number of forest fires.
The increase of fires to the forests and the increase in insect
populations may cause the biggest threat to the Thick-bills.
A pair of
Thick-bill sitting on a branch in their flight cage (photo: Cathy Spahn)
Thick-billed Parrots may
be identified by their bright green color, large black bill, the distinctive red
crown, shoulders and thighs, and the yellow patch under the wings. They live at high elevations (6,000
feet and higher) in the pine forests in the mountains
of Mexico. They are also known as
the Christmas Parrot, because of their colors and the fact that they will often
play in the snow.
Efforts are under way in
Mexico to try to save this species, and groups here in the United States are
again working to try to figure out a way to reintroduce birds into their former
habitat in Arizona. In the late 1980’s World Bird Sanctuary helped the Arizona Fish
and Game Department, the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest
Service with efforts to reintroduce Thick-billed
Parrots back into the mountains of Arizona. Several youngsters produced from WBS’s flock were released
to the wild. However, for various
reasons, the reintroduction did not work. Hopefully this time, having learned
from the former attempt, we will have more success.
A pair of
Thick-bills peeking out from their nest box at WBS (photo: Cathy Spahn)
Here at the World Bird
Sanctuary we have a large enclosure with a free flying flock of Thick-billed
Parrots. It’s always a treat to
watch them flying and interacting with each other as they would in the wild. During
the winter you may see them early in the morning as they leave their night
roosts looking for breakfast. They
are often heard more than seen.
They love their nest boxes and can often be
heard “laughing” (yes, their voice sometimes sounds like a human laughing)
inside the boxes. They also like
to sit in pairs high in the cage, so be sure to look
up.
Arizona, WBS’s
Education Ambassador (photo: Gay Schroer)
During the summer you can
also meet Arizona, a Thick-billed Parrot that is one of our Education
Department birds. He lives in the Nature Center and
likes to greet our visitors when he is not traveling to one of our outreach
programs. Arizona, as well as all
of our other resident animals, is available for adoption as part of our Adopt A
Bird program. If you choose to adopt
Arizona your adoption donation will help to feed, house, and care for him
throughout the coming year. Of
course, if you are so inclined, there is always the option to adopt the whole
flock!
Submitted by Cathy Spahn,
World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist
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