World's Smallest Parrot Filmed

For the first time ever the world's smallest parrot has been filed. What a wonderful event!

Smaller than a person's thumb, this little parrot is amazing. Watch the video and discover this wonderful little parrot in it's native habitat.

Read full article and view video here.

Thick Billed Parrot in New Mexico

"THICK- BILLED PARROT BRINGS BIRDERS TO ENGLE

ENGLE, N.M. -- Wildlife watchers continue to flock to the Armendaris Ranch headquarters to view a mysterious bird temporarily living in a sparse patch of pine trees shading the sun-baked Chihuahuan desert east of Truth or Consequences.

A thick-billed parrot, Rhynchopsitta pachyrhyncha, residing on one of Ted Turner's New Mexico ranches has brought in viewers from both North American coasts and Canada. In all, the parrot watchers hailed from 24 states and four countries. This species, you see, is considered endangered in Mexico and has not been seen in the wild in Arizona since 1938. It was previously reported in the Animas Mountains of New Mexico in 1917 and 1919.

"Nobody knows how this bird got here," said Tom Waddell, property manager at the Armendaris. He first observed the parrot in a windbreak of Mondell pines in his yard on May 7. Theories explaining the bird's occurrence range from its being blown off course by the tornado-spawning storms that raged through Texas and Oklahoma the weekend of May 3-4, to it being an escapee from the illegal parrot trade.

Waddell believes it's a wild bird. "There's no evidence of it having been in a cage or anything," he said. "All its daily behaviors, when it eats and rests, when it goes to water, are exactly like a wild bird. And it doesn't touch commercial parrot foods, either."

Read entire article here

A million acres of Amazon rainforest

"Vast new reserve declared in Peru - Courtesy of the World Land Trust

September 2009. World Land Trust (US) and their partner CEDIA (Center for the Development of the Indigenous Amazonians) are proud to announce that the Matsés National Reserve has been approved by the Peruvian national government. This will help ensure the protection of 1,039,390 acres of pristine Amazonian rainforest as well as the Matsés indigenous Amazon tribe.

Culmination of 13 year project
This long awaited triumph for the Amazonian rainforests has been worked for for 13 years by CEDIA, working with the Matsés peoples and providing technical assistance to the government Park Service (SEMARNAP). During much of this time, World Land Trust has been the principal financing source for CEDIAs efforts with the Matsés, supporting community work and provision of technical assistance to the government in an effort to save this precious area of the Amazon. During those 13 years, we have overcome numerous challenges from oil companies and illegal commercial logging operations that delayed the creation of Matsés national Reserve."

Read full article here

AFA Legislative Alert

Please feel free to cross-post the following information:

Common Birds in Aviculture to be Placed Under Endangered Species Act?

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is considering the possible listing of up to 14 additional parrots as "Endangered" under the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA).

If adopted, the proposal would list the following species as "Endangered" under the ESA: umbrella cockatoos, moluccan cockatoos, lesser sulphur-crested cockatoos, red-vented cockatoos, blue-headed macaws, blue-throated macaws, buffon's macaws, hyacinth macaws, scarlet macaws, military macaws, shining parrots, grey-cheeked parakeets, yellow billed amazon parrots and green-cheeked amazon parrots.

Many of these species are being successfully bred in large numbers by U.S. aviculturists and are owned by many thousands of U.S. citizens as pets.

Once listed, a species could not be sold across state lines without the appropriate federal permit, a permit that does not recognize "pet purposes" as a valid permitting basis.

AFA believes that this proposal is not supported by reliable scientific or commercial data, will discourage captive breeding of these species in the U.S. and will have a detrimental effect on U.S. interstate commerce, without any corresponding benefit to the species purported to be protected. Since none of these species has been imported into the United States since the Wild Bird Conservation Act (1992) went into effect, AFA sees no material scientific or commercial justification for the uplisting, but does see a huge detriment to aviculture and to the future of these species themselves in the U.S.

The USFWS has initiated a call for information on scientific and commercial data with regard to whether these species should be proposed for Endangered status, with comments due by September 14, 2009. They are not looking for general public comment on uplisting at this time, but are looking for input on whether there is a scientific and/or commercial basis for these species to be proposed for uplisting. If the FWS actually proposes these species for uplisting, that proposal should be open to general public comment. AFA will advise all of its members if this occurs.

AFA is developing a position paper on the scientific and commercial aspects of this call for information and will submit it by the deadline.

People concerned about the scientific and commercial pros and cons of this proposal may make their thoughts known to FWS by September 14, 2009.

Contact information for the Service and this important proposal can be found at fws.gov or by contacting the AFA Business Office at afaoffice@earthlink.net.

You can make a formal comment to FWS online by September 14, 2009 at: Regulations.gov

Or you can mail your comments to:
Public Comments Processing
Attn: FWS-R9-IA-2009-0016
Division of Policy and Directives Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
4401 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 222
Arlington, VA 22203

In either case, refer to FWS-R9-IA-2009-0016.

A Fighting Chance for the Puerto Rican Amazon

The parrot has been called one of the ten most endangered birds in the world. “Don’t ask me what the other nine are,” said White, as if to emphasize the futility of comparing endangerment when so many birds, including several parrot species, are on the verge of disappearing in the wild. The Puerto Rican is certainly the rarest of the 30-plus Amazona parrot species. Despite fierce efforts to protect a wild flock and reintroduce captive parrots, the El Yunque population has hovered below 50 for decades.

The birds battle their twin nemeses: red-tailed hawks and (even in the tropics) hypothermia. “This is not the area that they chose as a refuge; this is what they were left with,” White said of their high-altitude redoubt. “This is the rainiest, most humid part of Puerto Rico. Chicks that fledge either during or before a major rainfall event have a much higher mortality rate than chicks that fledge during drier periods. If we stopped management efforts with this particular population, in a matter of years it would probably be gone, because there are so many environmental factors working against it. That’s why it’s imperative to establish additional populations in Puerto Rico.”

Read the complete article here

Learn more about the Puerto Rican Amazon at 10,000 Birds