Parakeet "Boxes" Its Way Back

Once on the ropes, Brazil’s colorful Gray-breasted Parakeet is making a comeback, thanks to dedicated partners, communities, habitat protection — and nest boxes. The latest milestone in this rebound occurred in February, when three wildhatched Gray-breasted Parakeets took flight in a private reserve in the Aratanha Mountains in eastern Brazil — likely the first fledglings of this species in this location in decades.

Following many years of habitat loss and capture for the cage bird trade, the Gray-breasted Parakeet hovered close to extinction in 2009, when the Brazilian conservation organization Aquasis began working in the Baturité Mountains to save the last-known group of wild birds. Part of the strategy: installing specially designed nest boxes that accommodate family groups of the birds.

The project has been a great success and example for other efforts to save rare parrots. By 2022, nearly 2,500 Gray-breasted Parakeets had fledged from nest boxes placed by Aquasis with the support of Loro Parque Foundation. The species was downlisted in 2017 from Critically Endangered to Endangered, thanks in good part to these efforts.

With ABC support, Aquasis also launched an education campaign aimed at tackling the poaching issue and instilling community pride in this unique bird. As a result, the threat of poaching has now been reduced. ABC also supported reintroduction efforts including the Aquasis team’s construction of an aviary that serves as an acclimation area for the relocated birds, before their release.

The Aratanha Mountains site, about 35 miles northeast of the Baturité Mountains, is the first of five areas identified by Aquasis for reintroductions of this species. The team is encouraged after this success. “This is possibly the first planned translocation of an endangered species in Brazil, and we are happy to be part of this story,” says Fabio Nunes, Gray-breasted Parakeet Project Coordinator for Aquasis. “For the Gray-breasted Parakeet, it is one more step away from extinction.”

See the birds and people behind this project at: bit.ly/GBParakeet

ABC thanks David and Patricia Davidson, George Powell, and the Pat Palmer Foundation for their major support of this work.