The World’s Loneliest Bird
BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN BRAZIL
IF YOU think the spotted owl and the bald eagle are in trouble, you haven’t heard the tale of the Spix’s macaw. This Brazilian bird gives an entirely new meaning to the notion of “endangered species.” However, to give you the whole story of the world’s loneliest bird, we’ll start in the 17th century.
Back then, George Marc Grav, a Dutch settler living in Brazil, recorded for the first time the existence and a description of this bird. Before long, the local population called it ararinha azul, or little blue macaw—a plain but fitting name. The bird is dressed in blue and a bit of gray. Measuring 22 inches [55 cm], including its 14-inch [35-cm]-long tail, it is also the smallest of Brazil’s blue macaws.
“Later, in 1819,” relates biologist Carlos Yamashita, Brazil’s foremost expert on parrots, “scientists came up with the bird’s official name: Cyanopsitta spixii.” Cyano means “blue” and psitta stands for “parrot.” And spixii? That addition, explains the biologist, gives credit to German naturalist Johann Baptist Spix. He was the first to study this species in its natural habitat, a few tree-lined creeks in northeastern Brazil.
The Countdown Begins
Granted, flocks of Spix’s macaws have never darkened the sky. Even in Spix’s days, their calculated number was only 180, but since then, their situation has steadily worsened. Settlers destroyed so much of the woodlands where the birds were living that by the mid-1970’s, fewer than 60 macaws were still hanging on. Bad as that was, though, the countdown had merely begun.
What settlers did not accomplish in three centuries, bird trappers managed to do in a few years—they virtually wiped out the entire population of Spix’s macaws. In 1984, only 4 of the 60 birds still survived in the wild, but by that time aviculturists were willing to pay “last-of-a-kind prices”—up to $50,000 for one. Little wonder that in May 1989, Animal Kingdom magazine announced that a year had passed since researchers had seen the last free-flying birds. A few months later, it was reported that trappers had snatched all remaining birds. The Spix’s macaw, mourned Animal Kingdom, had received the “final coup de grace.”
Surprise and Hope
Biologists had hardly closed the chapter on the Spix’s macaw, however, when people living near the birds’ habitat said that they had seen an ararinha azul. More reports of sightings followed. Could there still be a surviving bird? In order to find out, in 1990 five researchers packed their camping gear, binoculars, and notebooks and headed for the territory of the Spix’s macaw.
After combing the area for two months without success, the researchers saw a flock of green-colored papagaios maracanãs, or Illinger’s macaws, but noticed something unusual. One of the flock members was different—larger and blue. It was the last of the wild Spix’s macaws! They observed it for a week and learned that the Spix, a socializer by nature, was tagging along with the Illingers to cope with his loneliness and to find a mate. Now, the green birds didn’t mind adopting this persistent blue fellow as a friend—but to mate with him? Of course, there are limits in polite Illinger’s macaw society!
So, turned down, the Spix’s macaw parted from his companions at sundown each day and flew to the tree where he and his former Spix’s-macaw mate had roosted together for years—that was until 1988, the year that trappers grabbed his lifelong partner and sold her into captivity. Since then, he sleeps there by himself—a tiny, lonely bundle of blue feathers perched on a high, barren branch. Now, barring a miracle, it is just a matter of time before the last Spix’s macaw with the know-how to survive in the wild will go the way of the dodo—unless someone finds him a match. That idea caught on, and in 1991 the Projeto Ararinha-Azul (Spix’s-Macaw Project) got under way. Its aim? Protect the surviving male bird, find him a mate, make a match, and hope that they will repopulate the neighborhood. Is it working out?
Progress has been made. The Brazilian Post Office put the fate of the planet’s most endangered bird into the spotlight by issuing a stamp in its honor. At the same time, biologists successfully rallied the 8,000 inhabitants of Curaçá, a town near the bird’s habitat in northern Bahia, to side with the surviving Spix’s macaw. With the townsfolk guarding “their” bird, which they nicknamed Severino, trappers now risk being caught red-handed. This strategy is paying off. Severino is still flying around. The next obstacle has been tackled as well—to persuade breeders to part with one of the six captive birds still living in Brazil. (See box.) One owner agreed, and in August 1994 a young female bird, nabbed by trappers as a nestling, was flown to Curaçá to be released and live in her natural habitat again.
Getting in Shape and Getting in Touch
This female macaw was placed in a large aviary located right in the male bird’s habitat and was put on a back-to-basics diet. To get her in shape for life in nature, her caretakers weaned her from sunflower seeds—her customary food in captivity—and served her pine seeds and the local thorny fruits that grow in the wild. Her stomach adapted well.
Daily workouts became another part of the training program—and for good reason. Expecting a bird raised in a cage to keep up, from one day to the next, with a partner that likes to fly some 30 miles [50 km] a day is like asking a couch potato to run a marathon. So to build up her muscles, the biologists looking after the captive bird encouraged her to fly around in the aviary as much as possible.
It did not take long for Severino to discover the aviary. After spotting the female, he screeched, called her, and came within 100 feet [30 m] of the aviary. “The female,” says Marcos Da-Ré, a biologist working with the project, responded and “showed great excitement” when she noticed her male visitor. Her excitement, he says, “filled us with hope.”
Teacher and Father . . .
Finally, the big day arrived: the aviary door swung open. After hesitating for half an hour, the female flew out and landed in a tree some 1,000 feet [300 m] from the aviary. But where was Severino? He was 20 miles [30 km] away, chasing the Illinger’s macaws again. Why had he left? Well, after he had waited around for months, when the breeding season finally arrived, his would-be mate was still behind bars. He must have thought, quips biologist Da-Ré, that “a free maracanã was worth more than a captive ararinha.” This time, Severino’s persistence paid off. One female Illinger’s macaw gave in and accepted him as a companion.
When the mating season is over, though, the biologists hope Severino will end his courtship, return to his own habitat, discover the liberated Spix’s-macaw, and take her as his mate. After that, he is expected to take on a double role—teacher and father. Since he is the only Spix’s macaw in the world that knows how to survive in the wild, he has to teach his partner how to find food and shelter and stay alive in one of Brazil’s most barren regions.
. . . And History Maker
So when the breeding season starts again, the biologists of the Spix’s-Macaw Project will be rooting that Severino will give up his pursuit of Illinger’s macaws and will concentrate on finding a hollow tree that can serve as a nest for his partner. If everything goes well, the Spix’s-macaw female will lay two small eggs, and a few months later, Severino will be teaching survival techniques to a class of three. Will it go that far?
“It’ll take time to know that answer,” says biologist Yamashita, “but this project may be the only way to avoid the wild Spix’s macaw’s becoming another turned page in history.” It is now up to Severino to seize the opportunity and write a new chapter. If this union works, nature lovers—and Illinger’s macaws—will heave a sigh of relief.
[Box on page 24]
Birds Behind Bars
An estimated 30 Spix’s macaws are living in captivity. More than a dozen of these Brazilian birds were bred by an aviculturist in the Philippines and still live in that Asian country. The remaining captive birds are living in Brazil, Spain, and Switzerland. However, all these birds behind bars lack a quality that only Severino has—the know-how to survive in the wild.
[Picture on page 25]
Preserved—at least on a stamp
[Credit Line]
Empresa Brasileira de Correios e Telégrafos