Last Refuge of Newly Rediscovered Fuertes’s Parrot Saved by Conservationists

Roving Classroom Helps Rare Parrot Once Feared Extinct
Fuertes’s Parrot. Photo: Fundación ProAves, Proaves: Bird Conservation in Colombia.

(Washington, D.C.) American Bird Conservancy and its’ partner group Fundación ProAves, have established the first private protected area for the critically endangered Fuertes’s Parrot. The species, whose population size is estimated at just 160 individuals, lives only in a small area in the Andes of Colombia that is heavily impacted by deforestation.

“Until recently, the Fuertes’s Parrot was feared to be extinct,” said Paul Salaman, American Bird Conservancy’s Director of International Programs. “The species inhabits a cloud forest threatened by clearance for cattle ranching and agriculture. By conserving the remaining patches of forest and taking other steps to help this species, we are giving this species a new lease on life.”

In 2002, Fundación ProAves’ President Alonso Quevedo found a flock of 14 Fuertes’s Parrots (or Indigo-winged Parrot), and confirmed the survival of a species that had last been seen in 1911.
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Last Refuge of Newly Rediscovered Fuertes’s Parrot Saved by Conservationists



Brokenwing

What a pretty baby.

oh, how cool!