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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

Posted by Sam Williams on 04/15 at 01:42 PM
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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.

Posted by Sam Williams on 04/08 at 08:25 PM
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April 1

by Sam Williams

Where are the parrots?

The first few weeks in a new place tend to be filled up with sorting out things like transport and where to stay, but I've still got into the field and seen the much-missed birds. Amazons are just super cool parrots! They are so feisty and are such characters. Now I remember what joy I get from seeing them out in the wild, flying around in groups and making wonderful bubbly and babbling sounds, they're FAB! It is amazing though, how a brightly feathered and noisy parrot can suddenly disappear when they land in a treetop.

I've visited a number of sites where I expected the parrots would be, and getting a sense of where the parrots are and what they are up to. They move around on the island quite a bit, which is most likely in response to the availability of food, but there are a couple of places where you can usually see at least a few birds. I've found a new track that leads up to a stunning viewpoint above some cliffs. There are parrots below and I'm sure they will be nesting in the cliffs later in the year.

One of the aims of my research is to look at the parrot population's genetics, as historically the population has gone through bottlenecks (a proportion of the population dies, followed by a recovery in numbers). The genetic health of a population can influence the survival of individuals and the ability of the population as a whole to cope with changes to their environment. Global climate change will affect parrots!

To look at the genetics, I have to take blood samples from the birds. While I'm doing that, I will also put leg rings on the birds so individuals can be identified. With marked individuals it becomes possible to look at a huge range of things, such as adult survival, nest site fidelity, movements of individuals and so on, but to do any of this I have to catch parrots! There are various possible ways of doing this, but of course I wish to do it in a way that will cause the least amount of stress for the birds.

The parrots here don't move around in a predictable or regular fashion, so this is going to be an interesting challenge. I think the easiest approach to begin with will be to get them coming to bird tables with food on them. So there are now a bunch of bird tables around the island and we'll have to see how all the birds, donkeys, goats and iguanas respond to them.

Picture of me and the bird food table --
how could parrots resist such temping fruit offerings?


Picture of the habitat Wasau

Posted by Sam Williams on 04/01 at 08:20 PM
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March 25

by Sam Williams

Where are the parrots?

I first visited the Caribbean island of Bonaire in 2003 to work with the yellow-shouldered Amazon parrot (Amazona barbadensis) and get an idea of their situation. The visit was funded primarily by the World Parrot Trust (WPT), with contributions coming from the US and UK Amazona Societies and the Parrot Society UK. The fieldwork showed that there are a number of issues that conservation work must tackle to protect the parrots, but the good news is that the people of Bonaire are very keen to do what they can to help. (Look back to Psittascene Volume 16.1 (no. 58) 2004 to see what I was up to at that time.)

I worked with my good friend Andrew Beckerman following the 2003 field season to develop ideas of what conservation-orientated research could be done on Bonaire and together we created a research position at the University of Sheffield, England. I am now a PhD candidate, and the main focus of my work will be to look at the factors that limit the parrot population here on Bonaire. The point is that only when we have identified the biggest problem can we best direct future conservation efforts.

The project also grew as ideas developed, and this time I am not the only parrot researcher on the island. Rowan Martin, another English lad, will also be doing research on the Amazons, and WPT is supporting his work too. Our projects are independent, but it's great because we can really help each other out and achieve more through working together. Ro's studies will look at the parrot's monogamous mating system and the roles of males and females. Among birds sexual monogamy (as oppose to social monogamy) is actually very rare and he is interested in investigating the driving forces behind it.

So here I am back on the island, yippee! Within an hour of getting of the plane, I'd seen a group of 12 parrots. I'd like to think they were welcoming me back. Seeing the sun is just fantastic after being in Britain in winter. I can't wait to get started.

Picture of a yellow-shouldered Amazon parrot (Amazona barbadensis)

Posted by Sam Williams on 03/25 at 08:12 PM
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