Blue Fronted Amazon Project

We are sorry  for the gap on the postings. 2010 has been a busy year for all of us. But we are back, with new posts, pictures and videos!

From August to November 2010 we registered the reproductive activity of a couple of Blue-fronted Amazon at the Caiman Ecological Refuge (http://en.caiman.com.br/). This was possible due to the donation of the equipments from IdeaWild (www.ideawild.org) to our Project. We were very excited to use our new camera and recording devices!

It took us about 80 hours of filming with two cameras, one microcamera inside the nest, and one outside the nest. We registered the parental behavior of the parrots with the eggs and nestlings. From the very beginning, the female was very devoted to the nestlings, keeping them warm and fed several times a day. The male was busy keeping guard on the nest, and also caring for the female and the nestling, by feeding them. Parrots, as other psittacine bird, are very loyal to their mate and stay together for life.

We are glad to share with you the result of this filming! See link below. The female on the left screen, and the nestlings on the right. It was a great experience to film the entire growth of the nestlings, until they were fledglings and ready to fly freely.

We hope you enjoy the video! Leave us a post if you liked it!

Glaucia and team

Video of female and nestlings in the nest

2009 was a great year for the Project, thanks to all the support and help from people like you, that believed in our work for the parrots and the Pantanal! We wish you all happy holidays and a wonderful 2010!

Glaucia Seixas and team

During the past two months, Vandir, Veronica, Thyago and I have been monitoring a nest of blue-fronted Amazon with a microcamera in Pantanal. And now we share with you this fantastic video, which is the first record of a parental care inside the nest of blue-fronted Amazons!

It took us about 110 hours of observations and filming in the nest, plus some more filming of the tree cavity with a regular camera. We registered the parental care with their 4 eggs, and later, with their 3 nestlings (unfortunately one egg did not hatch). The female has always been very careful, feeding and keeping the nestling warm. The male, always very attentive with the female, fed her on her beak, and helped to feed the nestlings.

Parrots are very faithful with their partner, having a life-long relationship! In the reproductive season, their main duty is to defend the nest against intruder parrots and other animals.In this video you will see the three nestlings, with about 32 to 39 days of age, asking for food, and being fed by their mother.

To be able to film the nest, and watch the eggs hatch and the nestling grow, is a very special and emotional moment for our team! And we are happy to be able to share with you this unique experience!

Enjoy!

Glaucia Seixas

 [kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/zwYjAuEFsoo" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Between Nov 12th and 15th, I participated on the XXVII Annual Ethology Meeting and I Latin-American Symposium of Ethology (http://www.xxviieae.com.br/), at Bonito – Mato Grosso do Sul. The theme of the meeting was “Animal evolution and behavior” and many well known scientists from all over Brazil and also from other countries were present. Dr. Neiva Guedes (Instituto Arara Azul – http://www.projetoararaazul.org.br/) presented her results and gave a talk to the attendees.  I presented two posters: 1) ‘Parental behavior of repopulated Blue-fronted Amazon’, with the collaboration of the biologist Alessandra Mara Sá Firmino, and 2) ‘Reproductive behavior of Blue-fronted Amazon monitored by a in nest microcamera’ with the collaboration of the undergraduates Verónica Ramirez Martinez (UFMS) e Thyago Sabino Morais (UCDB). 

Poster about parental behavior.

Poster about reproductive behavior.

These studies had the financial support of the Bird Park (Parque das Aves) – Foz Tropicana (http://www.parquedasaves.com.br/) and Caiman Ecological Refuge (http://www.caiman.com.br/), besides the operational support of the Fazenda San Francisco Agro Ecotourism Tours and Lodje (http://www.fazendasanfrancisco.tur.br/).

Many people were very interested in the results of our Project, including students and professionals from other states. The event was a success and I congratulate the event coordinator Dr. José Sabino, from UNIDERP/Anhanguera (http://www.uniderp.br/), for this great event!

Presenting the results, and posing in front of the posters with my son Rafael. ^{Images: João Augusto.}

On Dec 12th and 13th I had a chance to meet with the artisans, children, and teens from the Instituto Família Legal (http://www.familialegal.org.br/), at Bonito (http://www.portalpublicobonitoms.com.br/), Mato Grosso do Sul, and lecture about the Blue-fronted Amazon Project.

Walkiria, the coordinator of the institute, introduced me to the kids and artisans. ^{Image: Giana Correa.}

Lecture to the artisans – Instituto Família Legal. ^{Image: Giana Correa.}

Lecture to the kids and teens – Instituto Família Legal. ^{Image: Giana Correa.}

This meeting is the result of a partnership established earlier this year, with the coordinator of one of the projects in this institute, the Fibra Viva Project. This project, coordinated by Sinéia Milano, has as objective to generate income to women in need assisted by the Instituto Família Legal, through the manufacturing of items made of reused and recycled materials.These products are sold directly by our team on our lectures/seminars, and also by the Ecoloja, one of our great partners (http://www.ecoloja.art.br/) – some of their products follow a ‘parrot’ trend, check it out!

Large Parrot Bag, and neoprene Shoulder Bag – Fibra Viva Project. ^{Images: Glaucia Seixas} 

Detail on Parrot Bag – Fibra Viva Project.  ^{Image: Glaucia Seixas.}

During the two afternoons that we spend at the Instituto Familía Legal, Lucia and Giana, from the Fundação Neotropica do Brasil (http://www.fundacaoneotropica.org.br/), and I learnt about the importance of this great job done by the institute. The 11 artisans and 30 children/teens showed a strong interest on the issues related to the illegal animal trade and on the activities of the Blue-fronted Amazon Project.We also gave away a T-shirt of our Project to one of the artisans, and gave prizes to the best drawings and sentences made by the kids and teens. We hope this was just the start of a long term relationship. We truly appreciate this opportunity and we congratulate the wonderful job made by Walkiria, Sinéia, the teachers, and the staff of the Instituto Família Legal.

Kids painting and receiving prizes – Instituto Família Legal. ^{Image: Giana Correa.}

Vandir and I shot this movie a while ago, of a young parrot equipped with a radio transmitter being fed by one of its parents. Can you see the antenna?!

This was a male young parrot, which received the transmitter in November 2007, three days before its first flight.

The objective of this monitoring is to follow the young on its first months, to verify the behavior and health status. We monitor the birds every month, by direct observation, with a receptor and a portable directional antenna. The coordinates of these birds will are used to determine its home range by the minimum convex polygon method.

This is the first time that we had registered this kind of images! We are very happy to share them with you! We intend to acquire more radio transmitters with the support of the donors, to get to know even better about this species.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/YbhMuvtNj0o" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

I hope you like it!

And keep an eye in our blog, as more and more videos are coming soon! ;0)

Glaucia

In July, the Blue-fronted Amazon Project received the professor MSc. Elaine A. Carvalho dos Anjos, actual coordinator of the Biologic Sciences course of the Dom Bosco Catholic University (UCDB) (http://www.bducdb.ucdb.br), at Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul. In August 2008, the Neotropica Foundation of Brazil (http://www.fundacaoneotropica.org.br) established a partnership with the UCDB, allowing their students to participate on the Blue-fronted Amazon Project. Since then, the Project has received many UCDB students and volunteers, and in that field trip, Elaine and I created new goals for this promising partnership.

^{Image: Glaucia Seixas}

^{Image: Glaucia Seixas}

Elaine taking notes and watching parrots with Vandir.

In September, the Project received two special guests that, in addition to Joao and Vandir, contributed a lot to our field activities. One of them was the biologist Lucia Maria Monteiro, the project manager of the the Neotropica Foundation of Brazil. Lucia works at the headquarters of the Neotropica Foundation of Brazil, at Bonito, and currently coordinates the Guia ECOnsciente Project, financed by the CITI Foundation. Her 5-day visit to our Project had the goal to increase the exchange of expertise between the different projects of the Neotropica Foundation of Brazil. We believe that this manner we can amplify the nature conservation actions at Mato Grosso do Sul state.

^{Image: Glaucia Seixas}

Lucia holding a nestling.

^{Image: João Augusto}

^{Image: Beatriz Caminha}

Lucia and the rest of the team, measuring the nestlings and preparing the rapel.

Our second guest was Beatriz Caminha, who has being a great collaborator of our Project. For three days, Beatriz assisted in our field activities, with the monitoring of nests, eggs, and nestlings of Blue-fronted Amazon in Pantanal.

^{Image: Lucia Monteiro}

Beatriz and I measuring a nestling.

^{Image: Lucia Monteiro}

The team monitoring a nest.

^{Image: Glaucia Seixas}

Vandir and Beatriz  are counting parrots at a roosting site at Aquidauana river.

^{Image: Glaucia Seixas}

Beatriz and Lucia, watching the parrots.

^{Image: Glaucia Seixas}

Beatriz and João opening the  field gate.

 ^{Image: Lucia Monteiro}

Vandir monitoring a nest,  while Beatriz and I are taking biometry measurements of a nestling.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude for their help, pictures, opening fieldgate, annotations, and also for ‘sharing in’ mosquitoes and ticks with us! We hope they have enjoyed the experience and that they keep helping the Project, more and more each time! Hope to have you again in the field with us sometime soon!

Hugs,

Glaucia Seixas

The reproductive season is coming, and that is when we have to double our work load to monitor 200+ tree cavities and check the eggs and nestlings. But it’s not only the work load that increases this time of the year… our costs doubles as well. And I am very worried on how to continue the Project’s activities, particularly this year, due the low financial support and donations. Yes, I do apply for grants, but I get almost always the same answer… “We understand the importance of your Project; however, we need to give priority to endangered species”. Ok, we do need to protect endangered species. But we also need to avoid threatened species to become endangered!! Otherwise, we are always trying to mediate the problem, rather than preventing it from the beginning.

A couple of weeks ago, in our last field trip, our jeep broke again… We had to stop the data collection and go back to the city to have it fixed. It is a 1994 Vitara, Suzuki, which I bought used on 2004. Needless to say that I bought it from my own pocket – I don’t even know how much money I’ve invested on the Project to keep it running. Maybe putting our own money in our project is something that every researcher does at some point – but now I’ll no longer be able to financially support the Project.

I understand that the financial crisis is affecting everyone, but I also believe that actions to preserve the nature are fundamental to maintain our life quality in the present and for the future. Maybe we should realize that each of us can do a little bit, and that all together we can do a lot more.

We are in depth grateful for every single donation. But we need more help and support to continue the Project. I work for the parrots’ conservation with all my heart and I’ll keep doing it until I no longer can. And I won’t allow the negative answers of funding requests to put me down. Give a deep breath, and keep thinking other ways to find funding sources – that’s what I am going to do.

If you can help us, either by donations, of by helping marketing the Project (or in any other way you might think it could help), please do so.

I want to express here my sincere thanks for those who have been heping us during all these years, either by financial and logistic support, partnership, and volunteering. Muito Obrigada! Thank you very much!

We have just got back from a field trip to Pantanal. Over there, Vandir and I counted the parrots under a cold 8°C weather, with some showers. For us, this is a very cold winter, and we had to wear many layers to stay warm! The reproductive season starts next month, in August. So in this trip, we fixed some nests that were damaged due wind, rain, or even tree deterioration, making sure that the entrance and bottom of the cavities are fine, so the parrots can use them for nesting in this upcoming season. We also closed some entrances that would allow predation, and added some bedding on the nest. Hopefully next month, these cavities will be used and we will find some eggs, which will develop in wonderful nestlings!

Here I am, trying to keep warm while registering the data!

Vandir checking the cavity.

Here Vandir is closing an entrance that would allow predation.

Bedding in the nest.

On the first part of my PhD dissertation, I analyzed the feeding behavior of the Blue-fronted Amazon. Once a month, from July 2005 to Dec 2007, my team and I used trails in different environments in Pantanal to observe the parrots.

I registered 1,349 Blue-fronted Amazon eating flowers, fruits, and seeds from 48 different plant species. The high seed consumption indicates that this parrot is mainly a graminivore of canopy trees. In general, the Blue-fronted Amazon is a generalist, with a very diverse diet, in response to the intense variety of resources in a seasonal and heterogeneous environment, such as Pantanal. Our next step will be to evaluate the nutritional composition of the Blue-fronted Amazon diet, with the collaboration of researches from different institutions.

Parrot eating flowers of the Caribbean Trumpet Tree (Tabebuia aurea).

Vandir and I checking the trees.