Parrot Blogger - Sam Williams
– About Sam –
Sam received support from the World Parrot Trust to research the Yellow-Shouldered Amazons on Bonaire.
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June 17 2006
June 17
by Sam Williams
Infanticide?!
The parrot chicks are doing well. Some even have feathers now and they are beginning to look like real birds! Of the nests we can get into, there are 3 with 4 chicks, 4 with 3 chicks and 3 with a single chick. We know of a couple of other nests but they are so deep we can't get to the chicks and we haven't checked again with the infra red camera due to electrical cable issues.
One of the single chicks was in a nest of two but sadly the older sibling was killed. What is really unfortunate and peculiar is that it was clearly not by a predator but in fact by an adult parrot. The dead chick had parrot beak bite marks in several places on its head and its upper mandible was broken where it had been bitten.
Rowan has been observing this pair and he has often commented that there are always other birds around and that there is much aggression and displaying from the pair. This typically includes lots of vocalisations, tail fanning and wing raising. It is not clear therefore, whether an individual from one of the other pairs has got into the nest and killed the chick or if it was the parents. I have heard of captive parrot parents being confused, or over enthusiastic and killing chicks but I don't know if this is a regular thing with wild birds. Perhaps the adults are inexperienced but if that were the case then I would expect the problems to have been when the chick was very young. This chick weighed 142g so he was a good size so I don't think it was that. There haven't been any obvious problems with the younger chick fortunately. All in all it's a bit odd and very sad.
We have put closed rings on a few chicks but in truth we have missed our chance with most of the chicks and we'll have to put open ones on them. For our purposes it makes little difference as they have the same colours for identification. When we put rings on the chicks we'll also be taking blood samples for the genetics work, so it's good to leave it till they are a bit bigger anyway. This week I found the first and so far only, parasite on a chick. It was a tiny bug of some description. From now on I will take a syringe and a small tub so I can collect any bugs and later identify them. But hopefully there won't be many burdening the chicks!
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April 29 2006
April 29
by Sam Williams
Buchy and the boss
To help us record as many breeding attempts as possible we asked a former poacher Buchy Frans if he'd show us some nests. I met Buchy on my last visit and kept in touch with him as I knew he had a wealth of information on the parrots. Buchy is a remarkable Bonairian. He's 76, though probably fitter than most over 50s on the island. He's sailed around the world several times, speaks five or more languages and he knows the island like the back of his hand. He had us driving down tiny donkey tracks and we'd stop in a seemingly featureless bit of habitat, whereupon he'd walk 100 meters or so right up to an old parrot nest. Sadly as Buchy says "the new poachers are stupid, they cut holes in the trees with chainsaws to take the babies and the loras won't come back". In fact every tree nest Buchy showed us or that we have found ourselves has a chainsaw hole in it!
This week Andrew Beckerman our supervisor came out on his first visit to Bonaire. It's important for Andrew to see the lay of the land where both Rowan and I are working as then he can appreciate the problems we come across, before going on to tell us to just do it anyway! We had a lot of fun going out, seeing the parrots and discussing how we can collect the information we need in order to answer the questions we have. For example one of my interests is to determine what kind of habitat the parrots prefer, and whether they face competition in those areas. So I need to assess the habitat in the areas where the parrots are, but also in the areas they are not.
With Andrew's help we made a plan for me to look at the areas we know the parrots go to feed, nest and roost and in addition I will be looking at randomly selected areas to investigate what is missing from those areas. I'll be visiting each site (and there are nearly 50!) every two weeks to see what the plants are doing, such as, whether they are fruiting or if they have seeds.
Whilst I'm at each quadrant looking at the plants I'll also be doing a 15 minute bird survey. This is to get an idea of what is where and when I compare that to the habitat information it may be possible to pick up on patterns. In particular I'm interested in 4 birds: the amazon, the endemic sub species of brown throated (St Thomas) conure (Aratinga pertinax xanthogenius), the Pearly eyed thrasher and the introduced troupial. I'll be noting all the other birds and animals I see too but that means I'm going to need to brush up on the names of all the little birds in the next week or so!
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April 15 2006
April 15
by Sam Williams
Practise makes better, but perfect may take some time!
Before we got hold of wild birds Rowan and I wanted to practise our parrot handling and measuring so we could be as efficient as possible and minimise the stress to birds we catch. At the beginning of the year whilst we were still in the UK, Andrew Greenwood and Johanna Storm each gave us a morning of their time to train us in good bird handling practise. Rowan and I came away from the training having leant a vast amount and we're both really gratefully to Andrew and Johanna for sparing us their valuable time.
Working directly with the parrots is one of the things Ro and I will definitely be doing together. Having kept parrots I'm happy with the handling but taking measurements is a new thing for me, whereas Ro has a lot more experience with the measurements but not with birds that can bite holes in your hands.
Thijs Flahou is a Belgium vet doing a placement her on Bonaire and he's really into helping with the parrot's conservation. He has become a good friend and so he was keen to join us when we went to practise what we'd learnt from Andrew and Johanna on some captive parrots. Most of the time he's looking at dogs, goats and donkeys! We worked on 3 parrots and it all went well, we shuffled the order we did things and improved our whole methodology. To thank the captive parrots for tolerating the harassment, we got them some treats and did a bit of work on their aviary. Following this we caught and rung our first wild parrot. We were disappointed to only catch one bird but now "he" is rung we can identify him and his partner.
At the moment the pairs seem to be checking out cavities. They spend time at several, presumably deciding which one they like most. If you have breeding parrots maybe they'd be happier with a choice too. We did a nest inspection at a site I followed last time I was here. I knew the cavity was deep but this time we checked it out with Rowan's top purchase: an infra-red camera (which does not need daylight). I abseiled down the cliff and put the tiny camera into the cavity on the end of a long pole whilst Ro watched on a camcorder screen and tried to give me directions. The cavity went into to cliff horizontally for over 3 meters before we found the nest chamber!
Picture of us working on a bird
Rowan and I practice working together and parrot measuring
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April 08 2006
April 8
by Sam Williams
No nests yet, but exciting plans are forming
It's quite clear from their activities that the parrots are not breeding yet. This is good news as it means there is more time to get things in order before it gets busy. The birds are hanging around in pairs and the different pairs are loosely associated with larger groups. Sometimes they are all friendly with each other, but at other times there is loads of shouting and body language going on between pairs. Compared to something like a Cuban Amazon the yellow-shouldered may seem quite plain, but when they start flashing their eyes, fanning their tails and raising their wings, the plumage is spectacular.
For my PhD I will be on Bonaire for, hopefully, three six-month field seasons. Rental car costs over that period would be through the roof, so I'm trying to buy a decent car as financially it makes a lot more sense. It also shows the local community the commitment we are putting in here to conserve these parrots.
WPT, as part of its support of the PhD project, will be paying for the majority of the vehicle cost, so the WPT palm cockatoo logo will definitely be going on the side of the car. In addition I think it would be really fun to get some parrot paintings done, so the project car becomes the "parrotmobile"! All of a sudden there are plans to try and hold a competition in the schools for the best design. George and Laura DeSalvo, who run one of the island's newspapers (and have helped me out endlessly), are really encouraging the idea. Jan Huckaby, an artist, has offered to help judge the entries and there are already prizes being offered. People on Bonaire are so positive and helpful, it blows me away.
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