The parrot rescue is moving forward at a relentless pace. Even Sid the smallest parrot, and cover star from the last edition of The Bonaire Reporter, has beautiful bright green feathers on his wings. Many of the parrot team have been heard uttering classic lines like "Gosh they grow up fast" and "I can remember when he was just a tiny pink bundle of joy". Observing this rapid development is a wonderful privilege and a fantastic return for dedicated people helping the rescue effort.
Parrot parents work extremely hard to raise their chicks and the challenge of trying to rear 80+ un-weaned babies is monumental. With so many birds arriving stressed and malnourished it is incredible that only one poor chick from the rescue has died in Echo's care (on day 2). Two parakeet chicks are currently under observation following some weight loss but with parrot hand-rearing expert Phoebe Linden (who flew done from California to help Echo) they are in good hands.
Even after wild parrot chicks leave the nest they remain dependant for weeks or even months on the food their parents regurgitate. With the birds growing up they needed more room to stretch their wings even though they are still being feed by hand. Yes! The parrot team are still feeding most of the chicks by hand at least twice a day. To give these "fledglings" the space they need we quickly put together three aviaries in the Jong Bonaire classroom. We were a little nervous about what Elona the director might think but we needn't have worried. Elona has been incredibly supportive of the rescue effort and when she saw the new cages, which take up half the room, she thought it was brilliant!
There are now five parrot chicks that have fledged and are flying around in their new aviary and over 40 of the parakeets are in aviaries too. This make's the hand feeding exciting but also very messy and the whole operation is going through lots of food, newspapers, fruits and veggies.
We've also been building aviaries out in the kunuku where in the not too distant future we hope to release these illegally captured birds. This pre-release aviary is necessary because of the sheer number of birds we have to house. It will also give weaned birds arriving from Jong Bonaire the chance to improve their flying and foraging skills and generally become a bit more streetwise prior to being released into the wild.
The older birds that have been in the release aviary since they were confiscated (and some of whom are now in the larger pre-release aviary) have attracted the attention of wild parakeets. This is great to see. The parakeets are really social birds and we're confident they will do really well once released.
All this work has only been made possible because of the tremendous help of dedicated individuals. Phoebe Linden has given a month of her time to come to Bonaire for these birds. Tineke, Hanny, Hettie, Melody and Mieke deserve mention for their continued dedication with the hand feeding. Dianne and her two girls Kelsey and Sanda have worked day and night since the confiscation. Dianne's husband Joe has been a great source of laughs and has spent much of his two week holiday building aviaries. Maine, Brian, Barbel, Dennis, Tamara and Sarah have also been building aviaries and feeding the older birds.
What has been really great to experience is the help that Echo has received from individuals from other conservation organizations. Mabel from Sea Turtle Conservation Bonaire; Nat, Emeray, Annemarie and Devenny from Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance and Elsmarie from STINAPA have all come and helped at feeding time. Orlando at Rento Fun must also be mentioned has he has provided a great deal of help for the rescue by making two rental cars available despite knowing they would be used on the rough kunuku tracks.
Although the rescue has taken the limelight the wild and released parrots continue to do their thing and so it only seem fair to give a brief round up of other parrot news:
Al and Sue's remarkable romance quickly led to eggs and then babies but so all consuming has the rescue been that the parrot team barely saw the little wonders before they all fledged.
Released parrots Isla and Johan have been foraging further a field but still make frequent visits back to the release aviary. Monty too has passed by on a couple of occasions to visit the rescue birds, which is always nice!
Released parrot Harry doesn't tend to roam too far from the release site and has been seen passing amorous looks at one of the older confiscated loras in the aviary.
Failed release parrots Fat Sally, who flies like a penguin, and the ever-charming Darling were plucked from the release aviary to make room for the confiscated birds. They are currently living in a large temporary cage.
Although we still hope that one day Sally's flying skills will improve, for the time being they have become parrot ambassadors and as such we have been teaching them to say "Please donate". If you'd like to support the rescue effort and do as Fat Sally (almost) says, or for more information about the rescue please visit: http://www.echobonaire.org/Parrot_rescue
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