Blue-fronted Amazon Project

Category: Award | Date: Feb 15 2008 | By: admin

Since January 2008 the information and results of the Blue-fronted Amazon Parrot Project are available at the website “ECO-INDEX: better conservation through communication”. The Eco-Index was launched in 2001 by The Rain Forest Alliance to provide conservation community with a quickly and easily vehicle to share project data and reports, lessons earned, and best practices in a succinct and consistent format.
The Project also received the award “Eco-Initiative of the Month” (http://www.eco-index.org/search/resultsp.cfm?projectID=1208)!!! We are very happy with this award! Thank you Rainforest Alliance for the recognition of our efforts!!

3 responses so far

Category: Nestlings, Pantanal, Setbacks | Date: Feb 06 2008 | By: admin

We have just gotten back from the Pantanal, after a field trip full of exciting findings and setbacks to our research. The exciting findings from this trip were mostly related to the rainy season in Pantanal, which is when farms become flooded and the wild life rejuvenates with the return of the rains.

A tipical “Pantaneiro” and his horse, during the rainy season in the Pantanal

Also, the beautiful nestlings of black-hooded parakeet (Nandayus nenday), sharp-tailed conure (Aratinga acuticaudata), and white-eyed conure (Aratinga leucophthalma) that were monitored were beneficial to our research as well.

A black-hooded parakeet mom with its nestling and one egg.

Glaucia holds 2 young white-eyed conures

Vandir holds a young sharp-tailed conure

However, during this trip (and the past two), we experienced several setbacks to our research…The worst of all was the loss of ALL our biometry and banding materials and equipment. This equipment and materials are valued at US$600 all together. The scale (worth US$200), leg bands and pliers (worth US$300), and caliper (worth US$100) were all lost. The loss of this equipment was due to another problem with our car – a broken trunk door, which opened during the trip, allowing the bag with the equipment to fall off!!! We only realized that this equipment had been lost during our travels the following day, when we were about to start measuring the nestlings! We retraced our route along the road in an attempt to find our equipment, but we were unsuccessful…:-(

Besides all the equipment that was lost, we are in desperate need of a new vehicle that costs about UD$50,000, because our current vehicle is too old (too old means 14 years old) to perform field work, and is in need of being replaced. We are spending lots of money on maintaining this car, and it is cheaper to buy a new one than to keep paying to maintain the old one…and buy new equipment that falls out of the back door!

Our actual vehicle, crossing a flood area

3 responses so far

Category: Pantanal | Date: Feb 01 2008 | By: admin

The Black-hooded Parakeet (Nandayus nenday) is native to South America, more specifically, from Pantanal. In Portuguese it is known as “Príncipe Negro”, what means “Black Prince”, due the black facial mask, its main characteristic.

They live in small bands, but can be seen in hundreds in some regions. Little is known about this species and we are intensifying the studies about them in Pantanal, Brazil. During the reproductive season (from October to February), we have seen several birds investigating a tree hole, where they establish their nests.

This is an adult at the nest entrance.

Two nestlings in a palm tree

A male feeding the female

We still do not know if other birds from the band collaborate with the care of the nestlings. Besides the aspects regarding their feeding and behavior, we are monitoring the nestlings and collecting material to study sanitary issues. During January, Vandir and the externs Veronica and Diana monitored several nestlings of the “Prince” of Pantanal!

5 responses so far