http://www.parrots.org/index.php en kyle@worldparrottrust.org Copyright 2007 2007-09-11T01:58:00-07:00 http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/swan_song_in_blue_throat_landia/ http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/swan_song_in_blue_throat_landia/#When:01:58:00Z The Blue-throated Macaw (BTM) 2007 field season is well underway. I’ve just finished orientating our new coordinator for the project. After four field seasons here in Bolivia I felt it was time to move on to other things. My replacement is an Argentine, Igor Berkunsky (of Ukrainian descent if you’re wondering about his name). He did his PhD studying Blue-fronted Amazons in the Argentine Chaco for five years and is ideally suited to take the reins of the BTM project. He’s worked with over 130 nests and the field conditions of the Chaco should making working in the Llanos de Moxos (where Blue-throats are found) a cake walk. Temperatures in the Chaco can get up to 45 ºC (125 ºF) at midday and water is so scarce, field workers have to use second hand bath water to wash dishes. I should apologize for neglecting this blog for so long. I made a much needed trip back to Canada (the first in almost four years). I’ll make up for the abstinence by including a lot of photos in this entry. Eye candy for your enjoyment. The past month has been a whirlwind tour of showing Igor as many Blue-throats and nest trees as possible in the field while introducing him to important contacts and dealing with the bureaucratic side of things in town. August is usually one of the driest months of the year in terms of field conditions though 2007 has proved to be an exception. This year will go down as an El Niño year which in this part of Bolivia means rainfall was heavier than normal. The main river in our study area, the Mamoré, flooded extensively in March causing humanitarian crises in many populated areas and killing thousands of livestock, the main economic activity in the region. Even in August some areas were still flooded, necessitating the use of horses to get around, something we don’t normally do until November. It’s hard to say how the flooding will effect this breeding season. On the one hand, increased rainfall should translate into more fruit production and thus more food resources available to Blue-throat breeding pairs. On the other, things appear to be more out of whack compared to previous years. For example, in August it’s not unusual to find large Barn Owl chicks Tyto abla in nest cavities also occupied by macaws later on in the year. This past month we found two Blue-throat nests occupied by Barn Owls but the females had only recently begun incubating. Also, a larger proportion of nest cavities had been taken over by Africanized bees compared to past nesting seasons. This complicates our work as one of the goals of our project is to provide as many nest cavities as possible to prospective Blue-throat nesting pairs. It’s difficult to say if the increase in bees and delay in Barn Owl breeding are a result of the increased rainfall or due to other factors but they may result in fewer nesting attempts by Blue-throats this year (unless we ‘clean out’ the bees like we did with one successful nest last year). On the bright side of all of these concerns for the effects of El Niño is that we already have an active nest. This nest began incubating the first week of August, the earliest active nest I’ve seen in five field seasons. It was also interesting to inspect the numerous nest boxes we put up last season. Many of them were occupied by bees (the bane of my existence last month!) but a few were full of Black-bellied Whistling Duck chicks Dendrocygna autumnalis. One of them plummeted to the ground the first time I opened the side door to the box to see who was inside. Was it hurt in the fall? Not a chance. These ducklings are anatomically designed to weather such a fall as they are still incapable of flight by the time the exit the nest. Hence the origin of the term ‘rubber duckies’. Even though only two seasons exist in the tropics, namely the wet and dry, the end of the dry season in August still feels like spring in a way. Many trees are in flower including these Tajibo trees which reminds me of Japanese cherry blossoms, a riot of pink everywhere but an ephemeral beauty. There one day and absent the next. Numerous parrot species are attracted to the nectar of the flowers which add to the colour spectacle, throwing irridescent greens, blues and yellows into the mix. A Dusky-headed Parrot Aratinga wedelli gracefully illustrates the phenomenon below. Numerous bird species are preparing their nests for the coming breeding season and males sing and display throughout the day, including the Crested Oropendula Psarocolius decumanus whom I caught in mid-display as he tried to lure females nearer to his nest. Yes, they display upsidedown. The highlight from the field last month was in the 7 Islas areas. This was our most successful area from last season with three chicks fledging in late December. Of course I was interested to see how many of those chicks had survived thus far. Early one morning Carmen Silva, a volunteer from last year who is a now a paid field assistant this season, and myself were walking down to the end of a forest island and when were stopped dead in our tracks by the sight of several Blue-throats in a tree ahead of us. It was comical how we both started counting out loud to ourselves, “Four. No! Six! No! Seven! There’s seven here!!!”. We’d already seen four other Blue-throats in other areas that morning so there were at least 11 birds around. A small miracle given how rare Blue-throats are. Examining facial feather line patterns, which are unique for each Blue-throated Macaw, I recognized two birds as the pair which had fledged two chicks around last season. Sure enough there were two chicks perched above them. I was so happy. They’d both made it this far. It’s a bit hard to put into words how I felt when I saw those chicks. In essence they represent what our project is all about, hope for the future for this species in the wild. At the same time because I’ve spent four field seasons working with Blue-throats, many memories, good and bad, drifted over me as I watched them that morning play and clown around with one another. Since I’m leaving the project it is perhaps expected that I reflect on whether or not I’ve made a difference with my time here in Bolivia. Having a morning like that one in 7 Islas is reassuring on many levels. In my opinion we are a long way from having Blue-throats fully recovered but during my time with this project I feel we’ve identified many aspects of their breeding ecology we can manage more successfully to help get more chicks into the wild each season. I’ve communicated as much of this knowledge as possible to Igor during our month together and now where our project succeeds or fails lies with him. From what I’ve seen from our time together, the future of Blue-throats is in good hands. That’s him below checking out a potential BTM nest. So what’s next for me? Later this month I’ll be heading over to Peru to look for Blue-headed Macaws Primolius couloni. I did my thesis work in the Peruvian rainforest in 1999 and 2000 and truth be told, I have never seen jungle as rich in wildlife as there since. It’s going to be a welcome home coming of sorts. Blue-headed Macaws are the least studied macaw, and incidentally the only species of macaw I’ve yet to see in the wild. There’s a pressing need to get a better sense of where the species is distributed as well as basic elements of their natural history; what they feed on, their nesting habits, etc. I read recently that due to their rarity, they fetch almost $USD 3500 each on the black market in Peru, so I’m also curious to learn about trapping pressures, if at all possible. I don’t expect to answer all of these questions with the relatively short time I’ll have to study them but given how little is known about these birds, any information I can collect for them will help. The photo below was taken of Blue-headed Macaws at a clay lick in Peru by a colleague of mine, Luis Claudio Marigo. God willing I could take pictures like his! 2007-09-11T01:58:00-07:00 http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/end_of_the_season/ http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/end_of_the_season/#When:21:10:01Z Things are winding down for the 2006/2007 field season. Our last nest fledged two chicks a couple of days ago, bringing this season's total to six chicks, from four nests. Unfortunately the nest that began incubating in late December was predated when it had two small nestlings. I'm guessing either Toco Toucans or Crane Hawks were responsible. Both these species frequent the island where this nest is found. With the loss of this nest we can see that predation remains the main cause of nest failure for Blue-throated Macaw (BTM) nests. Of the seven active nests we found this season, three were lost to predation. I strongly believe that the habitat where BTMs are found, forest islands scattered amongst natural grasslands, favors nest predation. Macaw nests are concentrated in forest islands and are thus more easily located by predators than would be the case in a continuous forest setting, like the Amazon rainforest for example. All of the main nest predator species have large distributions and are not threatened. Consequently I think it's time to seriously consider controlling nest predators around BTM nests. This may involve trapping and relocating predators away from BTM nesting areas or even shooting persistent individuals. This type of management will no doubt draw criticism from bird lovers but given the state of BTMs in the wild, we simply can't allow common species to feed on critically endangered ones. On the whole I believe this season has been a success. For the first time we've observed nests with multiple nestlings. We've also seen that many of these nestlings die in the early developmental stages either to starvation (due to parental neglect) or predation. I'll be recommending to the Bolivian government the need to captive raise nestlings likely to die if left in the nest. Ideally we can release these birds into the wild taking maximum precautions to minimize the transmission of disease to other birds. Captive raised birds have their work cut out for them in terms of learning to locate food resources and avoid predation but I'd rather give them that chance at survival instead of leaving them for dead in the nest. This type of undertaking will of course be complicated and require more funding and expertise. I'd like to ask everyone who has enjoyed reading these blogs to consider making a donation to our Blue-throated Macaw project. We still have a long way to go before this species is fully recovered and as I've mentioned previously, we need to raise more money to be more effective in our efforts to save the species from extinction in the wild. Every type of donation, large or small, helps. Thanks for reading about our activities this season. May the 2007/2008 season be even more successful! 2007-02-21T21:10:01-07:00 http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/new_years_day_chicks/ http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/new_years_day_chicks/#When:21:04:00Z More good news, another 3 chicks have fledged for the season, this time all from the 7 islas area. I flew in on New Year's Eve to relieve some of our field team of duties. One guy had a bad ear infection that required immediate medical attention and some others were simply burnt out from being in the field for over two months. One nest (nest 27, see September 28th entry) had fledged a single chick two days previous but there still remained a nest with two nestlings that was important for me see through to fledging. I saw at least one chick in the nest on January 1st and none the next day. Either they fledged on the afternoon of the first or the early morning of the 2nd. Right after these chicks fledged there was a curious Green-winged Macaw inspecting the cavity. It's a good nest. No surprise it's in demand. The 7 islas area is one of the success stories for our project. When we first visited the area in October 2004, there were two BTM pairs there. They each fledged a single chick that season. In 2005 another nesting pair showed up (the vaca muerta pair) though none of the pairs nested that year. This season a total of three chicks fledged there bringing the total of birds up to nine. On the surface not a big increase but to have the population more than double is a testimony to what we can do when we invest the time managing nesting attempts. Hopefully with an influx of more funding and field staff when can replicate the success we've had here in other regions. After the chicks fledged at 7 islas, I headed over to check on the last nest we have with chicks, the 'bee hive' nest. Both the chicks were in good health (decent weight, no ectoparasites, and good energy) and look in good shape to fledge in less than a month's time. Of all the nests we worked with this season, this is the one I'm most proud of. After enduring all those bee stings getting the hive out of there in early September, it was gratifying to see the nest become active in mid-October; more so to have chicks fledge from it this year when it failed in 2005. With a bit of gumption we can have a positive effect on this species' recovery. About three km (2 miles) north of the bee hive nest, another BTM nesting pair began incubating in late December. Sadly its discovery comes at the tail end of this current field season when project funds have dried up. We'll have a local check on this nest periodically but we can't afford it the full protection we've given to other nests. I've always wondered if there's a second wave of BTM nesting attempts later on in the breeding season, more in tune with the nesting of other macaw species. Ideally we could have enough money to work year round in order to adequately look after all nesting attempts and getting a better sense of what is happening to chicks once they fledge. The reality is that conservation work in general is always short on cash, so we have to make due with what we funds we do have. In the case of our study that means we can start working in August until early February. Based on photos I took of the facial feather lines on this pair I was able to determine that the pair from the new nest tried unsuccessfully to nest in a motacu snag that collapsed due to strong winds in 2005. That nest was about 10km away from the nest they're using in 2006/2007, suggesting that pairs will move around in search of adequate nesting sites. In fact the more I analyze facial photos, the more it seems like a game of 'musical chairs' is occurring with BTM nesting trees. Nesting pairs at specific nests change from year to year, rather than having the same pair each breeding season. This is good news from the perspective of a high quality nests, as different pairs will have a chance at using them instead of having certain pairs dominate them year after year. I also had the chance to check on our nest boxes in the area. Alas two of the boxes were being occupied by Blue and Gold Macaws (BGMs), both of which had small nestlings. In other words, the metal plates we placed over the entrances do no exclude the larger, BGMs. As I've mentioned before, we don't want to encourage the already larger BGM population from growing due to our boxes. Although only two of the 15 boxes we put up were used by BGMs we'll have to replace all the entrance plates early next breeding season with something smaller to prevent BGMs from using them. Back to the drawing board with the nest boxes! Finally the two hardwood nest trees I repaired in August (see August 20th entry) are currently active with Chestnut-fronted Macaws. While they are not a target species for our project it's good to know these nests are being used again and in theory will be available to BTMs for the next breeding season. 2007-01-12T21:04:00-07:00 http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/first_nest_fledges/ http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/first_nest_fledges/#When:20:52:00Z Looking over the past few things I've posted I'm wondering if I'm depressing readers; nests failing, adults hemorrhaging, etc. It's a nice change then to write about the first nest of the season to fledge young. I flew out to the area to verify it myself. Part of me was secretly hoping to actually see the chick fledge, something I've never seen in over six field seasons of watching macaw nests. For me it would be particularly rewarding to see it happen with a Blue-throat nest as this is the species I've spent the most time with and every chick that fledges into the wild is so valuable. The chick from this nest was quite the tease with respect to witnessing its first flight. The top of this nest had broken off so I had a good view of the nestling as it would climb up to the top and exercise its wings. It reminded me a bit of a kid taking his first dive off the high diving board. The chick would teeter at the edge of the nest entrance leaning forward and spreading its wings, all the while receiving light caws of encouragement from its parents who were perched nearby. When it reached that critical point where it would either fly or fall over, it would pull back, aborting its exit from the nest at the last moment. The batteries on my camera eventually died from filming this ritual of 'almost fledging' over the course of five days. On the morning of the sixth day I arrived at the nest tree to find no macaws around, adults or chick. And so the first flight of the macaw remains this elusive, mysterious event for me. The fledging of this particular nest was significant on several levels. Occurring in mid-December, it's the earliest fledging event we've seen so far. To do so, this pair started incubating in mid-August. For whatever reasons, most of the nests this season started earlier compared to past years. This is also the first time we've seen a motacu palm snag nest fledge successfully. Over the past three seasons all the past examples of this nest type have failed, most to predation, some to flooding, one even fell over. It's good to know that these nests do work on occasion but we've seen that we really need to pro-actively management motacu nests to improve the probability of fledging success. Something else happened during my visit to this area worth mentioning. One nest tree there has been occupied every year since we first started visiting in 2002. One pair has been periodically guarding it this season since mid-August. There have been periods where we thought it was active, as the female was spending long periods inside the nest but by mid-December still no eggs. This particular nest isn't deep enough for my liking. It's only about 15cm (6 in) deep, so when the female sits inside it, her tail feathers jut out of the entrance. In order to make the nest more difficult to predate, I decided to climb it to deepen the cavity. The strangest thing happened while I was up in the ropes at the nest entrance. The pair that was guarding the nest flew into the area, circled the tree once and perched in another tree nearby. I've learned in the past that staring directly at wild animals usually frightens them off, so I ignored the pair and went on with my work, chiseling away pieces of wood from the base of the nest cavity. To my shock one of the pair flew to a perch in the nest tree, less than 2m (7ft) from my position. I tried to continue ignoring the bird but to be this close to a wild Blue-throat adult was too tempting. As I sneaked a glance over my shoulder the bird started to hang upside down in order to get a better look at what I was up to. Where was my camera at this spectacular moment? On the ground of course, eight meters below. After what seemed like an eternity, the macaw flew off to join its mate leaving me breathless. Blue-throats are usually so wary of human beings. I didn't get the feeling this particular bird was trying to protect its nest. It would have been making lots of noise if that was the case. I got the feeling that it was merely curious and felt sufficiently safe to get that close to me. As I mentioned before, we've been visiting this area for five years now, so maybe the birds recognize us and know we represent no threat to them. As much I'd like to have all the birds habituated to our presence around their nests, it's preferable they all retain their fear of, and distance from, humans. As long as there are beautiful birds in this world there will always be people who will try to trap or shoot them. 2006-12-15T20:52:00-07:00 http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/nest_20_predated/ http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/nest_20_predated/#When:19:12:00Z We've lost nest 20 to predation. I mentioned before that when a chick is over 300g its predation risk is lowered. Nest 20 has proved to be an exception. One of our crew went to check on this nest the other morning to find a distressed nesting pair and numerous vultures circling above the nest. When he inspected the nest cavity, only portions of the nestling's head and feet remained. This chick had to be well over 400g when it was predated. I back to wondering if a Great-horned Owl is responsible. Whenever we lose a BTM nest I'm left wondering if I could have done more to prevent it from happening. This particular nest had an open crown. By installing light weight roofing, we could have better protected the nestling by shielding it from predators that fly overhead and limiting access to the nest cavity itself. We discussed doing this when we first discovered the nest but had misgivings about attempting to do so due to the flimsy nature of the upper portion of the nest. In the end we decided not to take the risk of the nest cavity collapsing due to the extra weight added by roofing. In retrospect I wish we'd experimented with something. Losing a BTM nest always stings a bit. We put up a nest box in this island with the hope that the pair will take to it the next breeding season. They'd already invested two months in this year's nest (one month incubating and one month caring for a nestling) so it's unlikely they'll nest again this season. We also put up a box in the island where we'd seen t the wounded female a week ago. She was around with her mate and showed no visible signs of injury. The pair has shown no interest in the snag they were excavating in October. I'd be surprised if they did up nesting after seeing the female in such a bad state recently. Something interesting happened while I was up in the ropes installing the nest box. There was a pair of BGMs perched around 30m me, chatting with other parrots in the forest island. In a flash a Southern Caracara Polyborus plancus dove in from nowhere, taking a swipe at the BGMs. The attack was unsuccessful but totally surprised me. On one hand it's rare to actually witness a predation attempt and on the other, I didn't know that Southern Caracaras were potential predators of adult macaws. Normally I'd seen this species feeding on motacu fruits or hanging out with vultures at cow carcasses. That some individual caracaras go after large macaws may explain some of the macaw remains we've found throughout the course of the project. This species is abundant where BTMs are found. I suspect that preying on macaws is not an inherent trait for caracaras rather that some individuals do it opportunistically. We may have to look at predator control (ok, a euphemism for shooting predators) on a case by case basis. Both Southern Caracaras and Great-horned Owls have large distributions and are not threatened where BTMs are found. We simply can't allow these species to feed on the few remaining BTMs in the wild. Having lost nest 20, I shifted our attention to the southern BTMs. There's an estimated 25 BTMs one hour south of Trinidad. For unknown reasons this subpopulation tends to breed later than the northern birds, usually around the same time as BGMs. I'd like to work with at least one more nest this season so the south may be my best bet. One regretable trend happening in the south right now involves a nest box program for BTMs initiated by Armonia, another NGO working with the species. Last year the put up 20 boxes in the area, the majority of which were occupied by BGMs (75% of all boxes). Clearly something had to be done with the entrances to these boxes to exclude BGMs but allow smaller BTMs to enter. Alas, no changes were made and of the four boxes I saw at a ranch we work at, all were occupied by BGMs, two of which are incubating. The last thing we need in this area is more BGMs chicks fledging. BGMs compete with BTMs for nest sites and resources. Due to their larger size they usually win most confrontations. Being superior in numbers doesn't hurt their overall success either. In past years at this particular ranch I could regularly see a BTM pair around the house. Not so this season. Unfortunately three of the nest boxes occupied by BGMs are in close vicinity of the house. On several occasions I've seen these pairs aggressively defend the area around their nest box from other macaw pairs that fly too close. Presumably the BTM pair that formerly inhabited this area received the same treatment. By bringing this up I don't mean to criticize Armonia's actions rather point out again the need to learn from the mistakes of past field seasons and fix them for the future. 2006-11-23T19:12:00-07:00 http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/a_wounded_female_and_possible_siblicide/ http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/a_wounded_female_and_possible_siblicide/#When:18:56:00Z I'm back in town after checking on nest 20 (the new nest we discovered late October). The nestling is progressing fine. It weighed in over 300g at around 17 days of age. It's always a relief when a chick gets to this size as it's highly unlikely med-sized predators such as toucans and Crane-hawks can predate nestlings of this size. The location of this nest is a bit odd as there are few other macaw species around and we've yet to see any potential nest predators around. This chicks still has along way to go though prior to fledging (nine weeks in fact). We're banding all the nestlings we find this season. This is the first time we've banded. It'll help us track chick survival after the first year in the wild and also help us trace any birds that may show up in the illegal bird trade. We slip bands on around 10 days of age, allowing birds to 'grow' in them. Once fully grown it is impossible to remove a leg band. We received quite a scare from another potential nesting pair in this area. This pair had been excavating a motacu palm snag we'd carved a cavity into in 2002. Since 2004 a pair was regularly seen guarding the cavity during the nesting season though with no chicks to show for it. The upper part of the snag (containing the nest) fell over but the pair excavated a new cavity directly below where the old one broke off. I went to check on this pair a few days ago and took my first photos of this pair. To my horror the female was bleeding profusely in the neck and breast area. She didn't appear to have problems flying but to see a bird in distress like that was troubling. It returns us to the unresolved question of what animal is predating adult BTMs. A more disturbing explanation for the cause of this female's injury relates to when we saw her like this and the area she inhabits. There are many lakes in this region and people from the city come here to fish on Sundays (I should add that at this particular ranch they are doing so illegally, though there is little enforcement here). Last year, at the side of a lake I found the remains of a Blue-and-Gold Macaw stuffed into a tree cavity with a bag of salt. Someone had actually shot the bird for fish bait. While I can understand the factors that drive people to trap macaws for the pet trade it's hard to accept killing them to catch fish. We'll be keeping an eye on the island where we regularly see the injured female and her mate to see if she pulls through. In the event that we don't see her anymore, we'll search for her remains. Hopefully there won't be a lead slug in it. More bad news to relay (so goes BTM conservation at times). The second chick of nest 27 was found dead in the nest during an inspection last week. It was almost seven weeks old (and only a month from fledging). This is a perplexing as there were no obvious wounds on the bird. It was growing normally and had a full crop when it was discovered dead. The only clue which may explain its death lies in the manner in which its remains were found. It was partially buried in the nest litter with the first (and larger) chick sitting on top of it. This may be an extreme case of nestling rivalry where the older chick may have killed its nest mate possibly by suffocating it. Whether this happened accidentally or intentionally we don't know but to lose an otherwise healthy chick at this stage of development is truly sad. On a positive note the 'bee-hive' nest hatched two chicks the other day. This brings us up to seven chicks but we've lost five nestlings along the way. With each passing field season the bar is continually raised with respect to what more needs to be done for the recovery of BTMs in the wild. This year the theme is nestling mortality. At least three chicks have died in the first few days of life due to neglect from their parents (ie. starvation). Another nestling lost possibly to siblicide. A goal for next season is to prepare ourselves to raise third (and possibly second) hatched chicks in captivity for later release. This will take a lot of preparation in terms of having hygienic conditions and suitable release sites but given that every wild BTM chick that hatches is so important the species' recovery, we need to do more to assist more of them through to fledging. 2006-11-11T18:56:00-07:00 http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/another_nest_more_starving_nestlings/ http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/another_nest_more_starving_nestlings/#When:18:50:00Z We've located our sixth active nest for the season though it comes with a certain melancholy. This nest was active in 2005 too but failed due to flooding (yet another low quality open crown motacu snag). That a pair would return to this low quality nest in 2006 is curious but old habits die hard I suppose. I'd hoped to get to this particular area in September but due to work with active nests in other areas we couldn't get here until late October. I was happy to see a pair of BTM at this nest upon our first arrival but was concerned the nest could flood again. Their behavior didn't clearly show that it was active. It obviously wasn't being incubated or we'd have seen the female inside the cavity almost constantly. The pair would take brief turns entering the cavity though for short bouts. I decided on the next morning to climb with the aim of putting in a drain hole. To my surprise saw three young nestlings, one recently hatched. Going back to our experience in mid-September with nest 28 I knew we likely had to supplement the third hatched chick to keep it alive. We returned in the afternoon to supplement feed and tragically found both the second and third chick dead. Both had empty crops. The first hatched chick was obviously receiving all the meals but whether this was due to parental preference or sibling rivalry is unknown. While losing the third hatched nestling may be the norm, losing the second chick without giving it a fighting chance for survival was hard to accept. I can't help but think that if we'd arrived a few days earlier we may have been able to prevent its loss. Nevertheless a new nest with a nestling inside is good news for this season. Including this nest, we're currently monitoring the progress of six nestlings. Given how few BTMs we know of in the wild, to fledge six chicks will be quite an accomplishment plus we've still got the ex-bee hive nest to hatch chicks in less than two weeks. I've received some bad news by radio from our NW camp. They've found the remains of a BTM. Its feathers were all over the place thus making it likely it was predated. The question is, by what? At this stage I'm inclined to think a Great-horned Owl (GHO) was the culprit. They're found at almost every site we work with BTMs at. Friends in Brazil tell me that in the Pantanal, Hyacinth Macaws become very agitated when GHO are in the vicinity of their roosts. If GHOs can predate the largest flying parrot they won't have problems with BTMs, where females can be half the weight of Hyacinths. This is the second time we've found the remains of a BTM, a constant reminder that as we work to increase the number of BTM chicks entering the wild, adult and juvenile birds continue to exit the population via predation, disease and old age. Losing adults is always tough because macaws are in general, long-lived birds capable of producing numerous offspring in their lifetime. We still don't know if an individual that loses its mate will pair up again with time. It doesn't help matters that there's so few potential mates to choose from. 2006-11-03T18:50:00-07:00 http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/a_busy_october/ http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/a_busy_october/#When:18:36:00Z Back from a busy three weeks in the field. October is usually our busiest month in terms of monitoring nests and this year is no exception. We are currently following the progress of four nests, three of which have chicks and one that is incubating. I spent my time at 7 islas where amazingly all three BTM pairs were nesting this month, the surprise being the last pair. We refer to them as the vaca muerta (dead cow) pair because their nest is in a forest island that has a cow carcass 30 meters from our blind. I thought this pair were young birds 'playing house' in a curupau tree cavity. Lo and behold the female began incubating in early October. We kept an eye on it as we'd seen Toco toucans (the scourge of BTM nests, predating both eggs and small nestlings) in this island. For three weeks we never witnessed an attack on this nest. It was hard to imagine anything getting into this nest as the entrance was so narrow. The narrowest we've seen yet, a little over 8 cm (3 in) at its widest point. The pair has to enter it sideways. One of our crew left the blind at dusk on the 16th. When another worker returned to the nest early the next morning, the behavior of the nesting pair had changed radically. The female was out of the nest and appeared agitated. When she entered the nest cavity it was only briefly. She even went inside another nest by our blind where I'd seen Golden-collared macaws guarding the past week. We inspected the curupau nest the next day to confirm that the nest had been predated. How something frightened the female off the nest and slip through the narrow entrance still baffles me. Given the length of a Toco's bill (around 20cm, 8in) it's not impossible to imagine them getting their head and bill through the hole to extend down and get to the eggs. One nest the Tocos tried to predate but didn't succeed in doing is still going strong. This nest had two eggs which hatched two chicks. When the nestlings were less than a week old a pair of toucans would regularly appear in this island before sunrise make it necessary for us to leave camp when it was still dark to get to the nest on time. One morning a toucan actually flew directly into to the nest entrance. Luckily one of our field team was there to quickly exit the blind, frantically waving his arms and yelling to scare the toucan off the nest. On three other occasions we had close calls such as this. It's a credit to the dedication of our crew that we would get to this nest pre-dawn for a period of three weeks until the chicks grew too large for toucans to predate (around 300g). Using a digital camera with a decent optical zoom, I've been able to photograph the facial feather lines of this pair and confirm that they nested in an adjacent island in 2004. This pair fledged one chick in that year and look to be in good shape to fledge two in 2006. Thanks to the Canadian branch of WPT for purchasing the camera as it allows me to rapidly and reliably ID BTMs in the field (without having to trap and bands adults). The second nest with a chick in this area is the totai palm snag, nest 24. Recall that this nest lost the first nestling that hatched late September. We still don't know if it was predated or died in the first few days and was subsequently removed by the nesting pair. Due to these uncertainties we put a 12-hour watch on this nest to better protect the remaining two unhatched eggs. This meant from dawn until dusk someone was in the blind monitoring this nest. In the end this nest only hatched one nestling, the last egg being infertile. Although we didn't observe any predation attempts on this nest, the nest tree itself keeps us on guard. During one storm the upper third of the snag actually snapped off. The remaining portion of the trunk that constitutes the nest cavity is extremely brittle so we've added strips of light-weight wire around this area to add support and prevent the cavity from splitting open. We've kept an extra nest box by this nest in the event that the cavity (or nest tree) collapses. If this were to happen we can transfer the chick to the box. Squawks and calls from the nestling will lead the nesting pair into the box to feed it. Hopefully the nest tree will hold up until late December when the chick will fledged (though nothing is a given with this species). While it was disappointing to lose the vaca muerta nest I received a pleasant surprise before I left the field. The tree cavity we removed the bee hive from in early September is now an active BTM nest. The pair at this nest is the same pair that fledged a single chick in the area in late January 2006. When we started this field season in August we saw no signs of this chick so presumably it didn't survive and the nesting pair is giving it another go. The great thing about this nest is that it is a four-minute walk from the ranch house we stay at. In other words we should be able to get to the blind pre-dawn to ensure that toucans don't dine on BTM eggs. My exit from the 7 islas area was an adventure (to say the least). Heavy rainfall mid-Oct washed away a bridge on our direct route back to Trinidad. We were forced to take a longer trip in extremely muddy conditions, turning what is normally a six hour drive into a three day odyssey. The truck got stuck on four occasions including one nasty affair that took us four hours to get out of. Despite all the stress of this trip I was simply relieved to get the truck out of this area. One rancher I talked to decided to leave his truck there until next June when the water subsides. Any future trips we make into the 7 islas area will be by small plane as the land route is effectively cut off. The landscape is officially flooded. An unexpected twist to this story is that by being forced to take a longer route we passed through a town I've never been to. We rested there for a day to recover from all the toiling in the mud the previous day. Of course we drew attention to ourselves driving around in a muddy white truck with a six-meter ladder attached to it. When I explained to a local what we were up to he recommended that I look up an ex-macaw trapper who was active in the area in the '70s and '80s. Sure enough I found him and it was extremely interesting to talk with him on numerous fronts. Other ex-trappers had told me that BTMs were always rarer than the two larger macaw species in the Llanos de Moxos (Blue-and-Gold Macaws; BGMs and Green-winged Macaws; GWMs). Not so according to this guy. He told me of a clay lick where he'd see groups of BTMs, BGMs and GWMs visit in equal numbers, usually exclusive from one another. This claim is interesting as it is the first account I've heard of BTMs consuming clay and the idea that BTM' numbers can be equal to those of BGM's is not a pipe dream. At present BGMs outnumber BTMs by a factor of 6:1. Turning the tide so that these numbers become more balanced overtime is thus a realistic goal for this project. The trick to this is getting more BTM chicks into the wild than BGMs are fledging. Nest boxes may help here provided they don't permit BGMs from using them. Our nest boxes have received little attention from BTMs and lots of attention from BGMs. On one occasion I saw six BGMs perched around a nest box, the entrance to which had been heavily bitten at. PIC In fact almost all of our boxes have evidence of damage, likely by BGMs. We've yet to actually a BGM actually inside a box, so for the time being it appears that the metal plates we placed over the nest entrance are working. BGMs tend to nest later than BTMs though (starting in Nov/Dec.) so time will tell if our boxes hold up to the BTM's beaks. The other bonus of our unexpected stay in this town was that I finally got to see Red-shouldered Macaws Diopsittaca noblis. This is the smallest macaw species and for unknown reasons is not found where we work with BTMs. I've been lucky enough to see all the extent species of macaw in the wild now save Blue-headed Macaws Propyrrhura couloni. Unfortunately if I want to see Spix's Macaw Cyanopsitta spixii, my best bet is in the Sao Paulo zoo. The species went extinct in the wild in 2000, making Blue-throats the most endangered species of macaw in the wild. The buck stops here though. We're determined to not lose the last wild Blue-throats. 2006-10-21T18:36:00-07:00 http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/threes_a_crowd/ http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/threes_a_crowd/#When:18:25:01Z I'm back for a quick stopover in town. Things are proceeding well in the field. We've now got three active nests and another five that are being guarded. Our first nest with chicks is one to remember. When I first climbed it to perform health checks for the nestlings I was surprised to find three nestlings there. As I mentioned before, one chick has been the norm the past two field seasons. Two of the chicks were in good shape. Their crops were full (indicating their parents were feeding them adequately) and they were full of energy. The third chick was basically being neglected by the parents. They weren't feeding it and it was pushed off to one side of the nest opposite the other chicks. We kept this third chick alive for 3 days by first giving it Ringer's solution to prevent dehydration, then moving it onto formula in the hopes that the parents would accept it with time. Alas a cold front came in on the third night of our work with this nest and the following morning the chick was near death, shivering intensely and extremely weak. Although this is only one nest with this type of situation, similar observations of a neglected third chick will justify pulling this bird to raise in captivity for subsequent release. Wild Blue-throat chicks are too precious a commodity to leave for dead in the nest. On the bright side, the other two chicks are doing well. The first chick has already shot up to 200g (half a pound) at 10 days of age and the second isn't far behind. Hopefully this particular nest will weather the coming storms. It's the worst nest (in terms of structure and strength) I've seen in four field seasons down here. Very fragile (another palm snag). Why exactly Blue-throats regularly nest in these types of low quality nests remains unclear. Hopefully with time they'll start using the nest boxes we put up in August. I'm afraid that most of the nesting pairs we've found had already committed to a nest tree by the time we got our boxes up. We haven't seen any interest from Blue-throats towards the boxes. Some boxes show bite marks on the edges though. Likely frustrated Blue-and-Gold Macaws that can't get inside! Predictably one of the nest boxes has been taken over by bees (my punishment for destroying a hive a few weeks back?). Maybe if the boxes don't produce any Blue-throat chicks this season we can at least get a couple of jars of good honey... I'll head back to the field this weekend to work with two other nests we're keeping an eye on at 7 islas. I climbed the nest with three eggs (nest 27 from now on) expecting to find several chicks the other day and was disappointed to find that one of the eggs had hatched but no chick was present. We don't know if the chick was predated or died shortly after hatching and was removed by the parents. There are still two eggs in the nest though and the female is actively incubating them. We've put a 12 hour watch on this nest should nest predators show up while chicks are hatching. I've seen Crane Hawks in this island before, so that's my first choice for a culprit. This raptor has long legs perfectly adapted to reaching into nests to grab small nestlings. That the nest was missing a chick but still had eggs is interesting. Crane Hawks eat nestlings but not eggs. Toucans eat both. I won't celebrate any nests being active until the chicks get up to three weeks of age. By this time they're likely too large to be taken by either toucans or Crane Hawks. We'll still need to be concerned about Great-horned Owls and of course the ever present threat of humans robbing nests but I'll feel a lot better about a given nest once it gets over that three week hump. Another nest is incubating at 7 islas, a mere three km (two miles) from nest 27. For Blue-throats this is rare as active nests are usually highly dispersed (given their rarity). To work with two nests this close together bodes well for us. Easier for us to monitor (and more importantly, protect from predators). The next three weeks will determine how these particular nests fair. Keep your fingers crossed for the birds (they need it). 2006-09-28T18:25:01-07:00 http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/first_active_nest/ http://www.parrots.org/index.php/blog_kyle/comments/first_active_nest/#When:18:17:00Z Good news. We've got our first active nests of the season already. One is a palm snag I climbed the other day to put in a drain hole. The nest has an open crown (ie. no roof) and is thus prone to flooding. Last year we lost at least three nests due to flooding during the incubation stage so this year we're determined to get drain holes in right away. To back up these fears it rained three hours after we put the drain hole in! This particular nest has three eggs in it, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for at least two chicks. There's another two nests being guarded in this area (we call it 7 islas for the number of motacu islands found there), so hopefully with more time at least one more will become active. Logistics will be tricky at 7 islas because there is absolutely no water around. We've stocked up on drinking water and have set up a camp site with a tarp to collect rain water (when and if it comes). In the meantime everyone smells bad from lack of bathing. I finally got rid of the bees from a 2005 nest tree. We ended up using a pesticide spray to take care of business (the spray is harmless to vertebrates). It was amazing to see how extensive the hive was. It extended up the tree cavity for at least a meter (3 feet). I removed every last bit of it to ensure the queen bee wasn't hiding anywhere. We saw a Blue-throat pair perched in the crown of this tree a few days later. Maybe I'm projecting but I swear they were trying to coax the other one into checking out the cavity first. Tomorrow I'm rushing into the field to visit another field site that has a nest with at least two chicks in it. Exciting news as we've only had nests with single chicks to work with in previous seasons. As I said before, this project is all about getting more Blue-throated chicks into the wild. 2006-09-13T18:17:00-07:00