Friday, August 28, 2009 at 11:36 
Sulpher Crested cockatoo. Image by Romain BochetVisitors are fascinated by them, but flocks of cockatoos are proving a mixed blessing for the residents of Kallista in Melbourne's Dandenong Ranges.
Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 7:41 
Adult White-breasted Parakeet
Artificial nest boxes erected on the Tapichalaca Reserve, have proved highly successful for White-breasted Parakeets (Pyrrhura albipectus) and Golden-plumed Parakeets (Leptosittaca branickii).
Monday, August 24, 2009 at 12:00 
Bleached Burrowing parrotIllegal wildlife traffickers in Argentina are bleaching the plumage of common parrots and passing them off as their rarer and more valuable cousins. Wildlife groups say the burrowing parrot, a breed that inhabits most of the country’s territory, is being captured in large numbers and dyed in order to give it the appearance of a much rarer Amazon species that can fetch at least double the price on the thriving black market.
The bird, which has an olive green back, blue wings and a yellow belly with a red stain, is given a hydrogen peroxide bath to give it the appearance of a blue-and-yellow macaw, which has a much higher price tag of up to $530. They are then sold at fairs in Buenos Aires and elsewhere as part of an illegal trade in exotic wildlife worth millions of dollars annually.
Monday, August 24, 2009 at 10:31 
Monk parakeet, the yellow on the head is the result of bleach and paint. Image by Alfredo Acevedo Alfaro.It may not be dead, have shuffled off this mortal coil or joined the bleedin’ choir invisible, but anyone purchasing this parrot should know that it has had a paint job.
Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 8:10 
The Bird SquawkerCayman Wildlife Rescue, a programme of the National Trust, has been testing a Cayman parrot deterrent device with great success.
A Florida–based company, called Bird Busters, has created a custom device which is programmed specifically to ward off Cayman parrots from crops. The device, called a Bird Squawker, plays back distress calls and alarm calls from Cayman parrots, cries of predatory hawks, gunshot noises and digital sound effects in a random pattern to confuse and scare offending birds.
The custom device has now been tested in local farmland, worked by Franklyn Smith. Mr. Smith’s worker Eval Davis reported: “When the device is running we have no new damage to the crop. If the device is off the parrots return to the area within a day.”
