Endangered parrots stolen from Breakers on Palm Beach, dumped at pet store

 Palm beach parrotPALM BEACH — Police are looking for a bird trapper who preyed on two rare wild endangered parrot chicks outside The Breakers Palm Beach hotel and then dumped them at a pet store after finding he couldn't sell them.

"It's not only stupid and foolish, but it proves the birds have no commercial value," said Paul Reillo, a biologist and director of the Loxahatchee-based non-profit Rare Species Conservatory Foundation which monitors the pocket of wild green-cheeked Amazon parrots for the hotel. "It's a needless suffering to inflict on the birds."

Reillo said parrots have lived wild on the island since they were imported in the 1940s. Many escaped and created wild populations.

The entire island has since been designated as a bird sanctuary; trapping them is prohibited. The cluster on the property of the Breakers has been thriving there for years and is made up of the green-cheeked parrot, a species indigenous to Mexico.

Reillo said he has been monitoring the birds closely in recent weeks because it's mating season. Last Thursday he found a trap made of a wire mesh screen on one of the nests and two chicks he had been monitoring gone.

The trap was the work of an experienced illegal trapper, he said.

"This was a well-coordinated effort," Reillo said. "It's the sort of trap I've seen in Jamaica and Trinidad."

Reillo said the foolish thing about the trapper's crime is that the green-cheeked Amazon parrot is listed as an internationally endangered species and a special license is required to possess them.

"The birds have no commercial value," he said. "Also because they are wild they make terrible pets. They can't be domesticated."

The trapper may have discovered the folly of the crime. According to a Palm Beach police report, an unidentified man walked into a pet shop today and tried to sell the two chicks and then left them at the shop after the owner refused to buy them. The owner of the shop called Reillo.

"He tried to peddle them and when he found out nobody would touch the birds he basically dumped them," Reillo said.

Reillo and police did not release the name or location of the pet shop. Police spokeswoman Janet Kinsella said she did not know if police had recovered any surveillance footage or descriptions of the trapper at the hotel or the man who tried to sell the chicks.

Reillo said the chicks do not appear to be injured and are at his organization's property in Loxahatchee. The non-profit will attempt to rehabilitate the chicks and return them to the wild.

Trapping birds on the island can result in a $250 fine for the first offense and $500 for subsequent offenses, Kinsella said. Whoever trapped the birds could also face arrest on trespassing charges for going onto Breakers property without permission.