Two decades after it vanished, the stunning Spix’s macaw returns to its forest home

In 1995 a desperate attempt was made to save the Spix's macaw. The bird had taken on an aura of mystery since scientists first described it in the early 19th century and it was irresistible to parrot lovers. "For well over a century we had this very, very weak information that there was a mythical blue bird." Only one person remained alive in the wild by the mid 1990s.

The last wild bird was a male according to researchers in the UK. A decision was made to release a single female in hopes the birds would pair and produce offspring, as fewer than three dozen birds were known to be held in collections and zoos around the world. The female was released close to where the male lived and quickly adapted to her new life, avoiding an attack by a falcon. After little more than 2 months, she had matched with the male. She vanished two weeks after that.

The man said he found the bird dead beneath the power line. That is bad luck if that is true. He says that it is rare for parrots to hit power cables and that she might have been taken by traffickers. There are a lot of people who say a lot of things that they don't necessarily mean. The Spix's fate seemed sealed after the wild male vanished.

Conservatists are trying to reverse that fate. More than 25 years after the female flew into oblivion, they will release eight Spix's macaws into the wild. At the end of the year, twelve more are supposed to follow, as well as many more in the years to come. These birds will be the leader of a new population of Spix's macaws in their natural habitat. Significant scientific hurdles had to be overcome to get the project to this point. The biggest challenge is yet to come.

Thomas White, a wildlife Biologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and a technical adviser, says that the Spix project is unique in that they are re-introducing a species back into the wild that is currently extinct. None of the reintroduction programs around the world have done that with parrots.

George Amato is a conserver at the American Museum of Natural History. He says that it needs to be tried. I hope it works because we have no other options.

There is a tropical dry forest in northeastern Brazil that is home to the Spix's macaw. Everything looks green during the rainy season. The plants here compete in shades of gray and white throughout the year. The hollows of old caraibeira trees are where the Spix's macaws once nested.

It is not possible to say how many Spix's macaws existed in the past. Humans parceled large parts of the caatinga into ranches by the time Western science discovered the bird. The bird was spotted on an expedition to the interior of Brazil. The tone of humanity's relationship with this striking bird going forward was set when the bird was shot and brought back to Munich.

The bird became more rare as the human footprint increased. It was more sought after by parrot Collectors, who were willing to pay tens of thousands of dollars for a single bird. It became a kind of status symbol when it was rare. The bird became like a blue Mauritius stamp for philatelists because of its rarity. The very wealthy, very passionate collectors would do anything to have one.

Poachers took two of the three Spix's macaws that were known to survive in the wild by the end of 1987. After the plan to pair the last male with a captive bird failed, the male remained with a female of a different species until he vanished in 2000. The Spix's macaw was declared extinct in the wild in the year 2019.

The bird held onto its hold on the imagination. The story of the last male inspired songs, including one written from the perspective of the Illiger's female waiting in vain for his return, earned $1 billion.

Martin Guth, a bald and burly German businessman and parrot collector, stood in the spot where the Spix's will begin its new life in the wild. The Association for the Preservation of the Threatened Parrots (ACTP) was founded by him to help bring the bird back to the caatinga. A few hundred meters from where Guth is standing, a facility was built and 52 macaws were flown to Brazil. The first Spix's born in the original home in more than 30 years were hatched at the facility in 2011.

Guth was upset that morning. Workers are constructing a huge U-shaped aviary where the birds will be able to fly longer distances than they can in their small cages. It was late. The guy said everything was done even on the way here. He believed that a rival had something to do with the delayed project. The Spix has high-minded goals but its history is filled with jealousy and backbiting.

The idea of repatriating Spix's macaws to the wild began long before Guth's involvement. The committee was formed in 1990. It was a complicated and controversial process to build up an adequate captive population.

The export of wildlife had been illegal in Brazil since 1967, so the first people to know of captive birds were the owners. Wolfgang Kiessling, a businessman who founded and runs Loro Parque, a private zoo, says that one by one, people came out and admitted they had Spix's macaws.

Only 39 captive birds were known in 1996. Most of them were related. Concerns about inbreeding were raised by the fact that only nine of the birds came from the wild. Arguments over who would send a bird to whom kept derailing the plans for the Spix's to have any future. The more politics is involved, the more rare the animal is. In 1992, Collar wrote, "ownership is a matter of jealousy, prestige and possessiveness that is fundamentally different in psychological origin."

The owners continued to change. The private wildlife preserve of Sheikh Saoud Bin Mohammed Bin Ali Al-Thani was purchased by him in 2000. He came to own most of the Spix's macaws in the world.

Guth beat out the sheikh to buy three Spix's macaws that hadn't previously been part of the breeding program. The three birds he had were the most important because they were able to improve the genetics of the population.

Representatives of all the important stakeholders met in Braslia in May of 2012 It wasn't nice. One participant argued that Guth should not be involved in the project because he had served a prison sentence for selling birds in violation of the convention. He says that like other breeders and NGOs, he sells some birds legally, but has never sold Spix's or other highly-endangered birds, and that his offenses were committed decades ago. Tim Bouts, who was the curator at Al Wabra at the time, said he spoke in defense of Guth, who was not present. The Spix's that came into captivity were not legal.

There was no agreement at the end of the meeting.

Even though some have questioned his motives and methods, Guth has continued. Some donors prefer to remain anonymous and Guth is trying to avoid the disputes that doomed the project in the past. He says that they are doing things different. It didn't work like they tried it before.

Some people who say they are intimidated by Guth acknowledge how effective he is. The man is a bit of a bulldozer. He makes things happen. Guth was able to bring the birds to Tasdorf after the sheikh died due to his work with NGOs. Guth and Brazil's environment minister signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Berlin in June of last year. The Pairi Daiza Foundation and ICM Bio were also signed.

Guth says that he wasn't born as a conservator. He became involved in the effort to prove his critics wrong. They told him he wouldn't be able to breed the birds. I did, that's right. They said no birds would be sent to Brazil. I did, that's right. They said that he wouldn't bring the birds back to life. That is what we are doing.

He has put himself in an interesting situation. He can go down in history as the man who saved the Spix's macaw. If he messes up, he becomes the person who made it go extinct.

Conservators and researchers were fighting to save the species while owners fought over control. The ornithologist was told that the species was on the fence when he went to Al Wabra. The captive population of birds faced a number of threats at the time, including disease and a low birthrate.

Proventricular dilatation disease is a disease that causes parrots to slowly waste away. It had been known for a long time that it was a plague of pet birds. A group known to cause brain disease in horses and sheep was found in the brains of birds.

Michael Lierz is a vet at the Justus Liebig University Giessen. Birds that were red and separated from the others were used in a traffic light system. The threat of bird flu was eliminated by this.

reproduction was one of the problems. There were a few pairs that were making babies. It was decided to keep them reproducing. The goal was to produce enough animals to keep the species alive. The goal was to make better matches in order to preserve the Spix's genetic diversity. Birds with different genetics wouldn't make a pair. Parrots are verychoosy and monogamous.

Artificial insemination was considered by the veterinarians. This is easy for many birds, including chickens, pigeons, and birds of prey. The thumb is used to massage a male's cloaca. One paper notes that a short and smooth thumbnail protects the bird from accidental injury. Most large parrots do not use this technique. A new method was developed by Lierz and Neumann around 2010 to induce a male bird to release sperm. Lierz says, "As kids, we used to hold these 9-volt batteries to our tongues and it tingled."

The researchers were able to pair birds according to their genetics. The right time to inseminate the next egg is when one egg is laid. Purchase says he and Neumann watched female Spix's macaws for hours. We go from aviary to aviary to catch the male that we want, male No. 1 on the list. Purchase says that if they don't get enough semen from him, they'll go to male No.2. The first artificially inseminated Spix's macaws hatched in May. There is more to come. Bouts says that got them out of the genetic problem.

Purchase walked into a large room at the facility carrying a gray plastic cage in his hands. He opened the door of the other one and put something in it. He placed the towel on the floor. The gray head emerged first, followed by turquoise feathers covering the parrot's belly and tail.

Purchase took the bird to Francois Le Grange, a vet, who was going to check it out before it was released. Le Grange plucked a feather from under the bird's wing, as the bird's angry "ca- ca-" echoed off the walls. He used a children's stethoscope to listen to it. Blood was drawn from a vein in the neck after he took saliva from the mouth and cloaca.

After the birds are released, the samples would be tested for diseases that could endanger other animals. The team is more concerned about the risks these parrots will face in the wild. White says that their instincts for finding food have weakened after many years in captivity. Opossums, snakes, and birds of Prey are some of the predator animals. Humans were the cause of the bird's extinction.

These challenges doomed some programs. An attempt was made to bring the thick-billed parrot back to Arizona. The bright colored bird has been hunted to extinction in the US. The Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona were the location for the release of 88 of them. Some were killed by animals. About two-thirds of the birds were caught in the wild. Almost all individuals have been lost within a few days of release as a result of substantial deficiencies in basic survival skills. In 1995 the thick-billed parrot was last seen in Arizona. Even though a lot of money was spent on the program, it was a failure. Many biologists thought that release programs for parrots were not likely to succeed.

The population of escaped parrots that live in London and New York City are some examples of positive counterexamples. He says that these are like accidental reintroductions that work. White was involved in the re-introduction of Puerto Rican parrots to the El Yunque National Forest after they were destroyed by Hurricane Maria. The forest has been home to 75 captive-reared animals since 2020. There were four new nests spotted this year. It has been a great success.

Lugarini and a colleague went to a creek near the facility after dark. She wore leather gaters to protect her from snakes and followed the creek bed quietly. A pair of Illiger's macaws made their nest in a caraibeira tree.

Illiger's macaws are an important part of the plan to bring back the Spix's. The Illiger's are more common than the Spix's macaws in the caatinga. Both nest in hollows in caraibeira trees and eat the same food. Eight Illiger's macaws will be released with the eight Spix's when they are released. The team hopes this mixed flock will join up with wild Illiger's in the caatinga, which will allow the Spix's macaws to benefit from their knowledge of how to avoid predators.

Lugarini came for the eighth and the team had already collected seven. She used the cord to pull the rope over the branch and back down after she cast a red glow. She sighed as she looked up at the bats. She said that it was worse than the snakes. She was marked by the red light as she ascended the rope. She reached the hollow ten meters up. There are no animals. There were no Illiger's macaws left.

The release of more animals is better than before. A bigger group can help find food. It's easy to find a suitable mate. Numbers are important for macaws. White says that if you release 20 individuals and they all go in different directions, then you haven't reestablished a population. They need to live together. White says that combining captives and wilds solved two problems. While using a native species which knows the habitat, we can increase the flock size.

Birds of the right age can be released. Spix's macaws tend to return to the same location year after year when they start reproducing around age 4. White says that the sooner the macaws start reproducing, the better. You would like to have birds that are entering or reproducing. Birds will stay close to the release site if supplementary food and nest boxes are provided.

Predators were found to be the biggest threat to success when researchers reviewed 47 releases of captive parrots into the wild. Purchase puts metal bands around trees with nest hollows or nest boxes to keep animals out. He put decoy bands around the trees to make sure they weren't tipped off. Tracking collar will also be worn by the birds

Lugarini returned to her hotel in Cura. The four-wheel-drive vehicle bounced over the dusty road as goats scattered and closed wooden gates slowed her. It reminded me of the fact that the Spix's natural habitat is almost completely gone. The lack of knowledge about the area and its location in one of the most impoverished regions of Brazil has hampered the restoration project.

I sometimes wondered why we were trying to bring back a species that was extinct when there were so many other species that we could still save from extinction. Lugarini said it. It's important to remember that this flagship species helps us preserve and restore the caatinga and many other species as well.

Many homages to the Spix's can be found in Cura. There is a hotel next to the gas station. The theater is bright blue. Lugarini notes that the flag in front of the town hall has a Spix's macaw in it, but it is not the same bird as the one in the movie.

Fernando was the one who wrote the song about Illiger's macaw. Wearing shorts and a T-shirt, his gray hair swept back in a ponytail, he sat down with a guitar and sang a song about the little blue macaw. The song will be performed at a ceremony at the theater on the 11th of June. There will be speeches and a video. Purchase is going to open the door of the aviary to let the birds out.

It will be a moment of joy for those who have been working on this for a long time. Purchase thinks it will feel like a weight off his shoulders. They worry about their survival. Miyaki says there is an element of guilt because humans caused the Spix's to disappear. For it to return to the wild, we owe it to the species. The 1995 experience casts a shadow. She says the first release of that female was so frustrating. I try to be positive.

Between one third and two-thirds of the birds will be lost in the first year. The birds may be returned if the losses are higher. White says that you have to think about as many possible options and outcomes as possible. A lot of things are out of your control when you release those birds.

The caatinga is a mosaic of shrubs, cacti, and thorn bushes with creek lined trees where the Spix's macaws nest. The caraibeira is one of the many plants that have been grown by humans over the years.

The Centre for Ecology and Environmental Monitoring of the Federal University of the So Francisco Valley has been working for a long time to conserve and restore the caatinga. There is a project funded by the Inter-American Development Bank that focuses on restoring habitat for a bird. There isn't enough protection in the caatinga. The Atlantic rainforest can grow back in 6 or 8 years if you leave it. It doesn't happen here.

Lack of knowledge has made it difficult to replant the forest. Researchers planted degraded areas with plants that weren't doing well in the forest. The ecological succession was not known by the people. He and his colleagues have identified plants that can grow in degraded areas and pave the way for other plants. They use drones to assess the state of the area before planting it.

They want to restore 100 hectares of the streamside woodland and another 100 hectares of caatinga. Although some of the plants will provide food for the Spix's macaws, it will take decades before the birds or their descendants might nest in the trees being planted now.

The project will involve the people of the caatinga. For many generations, goats were the only source of food. People here don't have bank accounts. They sell a goat if there's an emergency. It is not realistic to get rid of these animals. The ecologists fence off newly planted areas to give them a head start against the goats and pick plants that are unattractive to goats. If we want to have success in restoration, we need to learn to manage goats.