Free-range Parrots - a meeting with John Strutt in Cumbria

Scarlet macaw hanging around in the gutter.I'd first heard of John Strutt in 1999 via an Internet Forum - For the Love of Greys. I was seeking advice on free flying my baby CAG hen but the subscribers advised me to clip Artha 'for her own safety.' In one message I was told that someone in UK free flies a flock of greys. The writer doubted whether it was possible. Fifteen months later, I had tracked John down via The Parrot Society and he had invited me to Cumbria to see for myself.

So in June, we were driving from the railway station down blossom-edged lanes through the nearest village. Four blue and gold macaws swept past our car going in the same direction. It was like something out of Alice in Wonderland.
'Some of ours going home,' said John. Artha on my shoulder, wearing a harness, might have looked wistful if parrots can show that emotion.

Click to read more ...

City Parrots to investigate the City Macaws of Medellin

Two of the Medellin Scarlet Macaws at their nest. Iamge by ACR-IMGCity Parrots has landed in Medellin, Colombia. Where forestry student Carlos Vásquez is presently conducting a pilot study into the Wild parrots of the city.

Click to read more ...

Triton Cockatoo returns to the wild

Triton Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita triton) returns to the wild.We at Araproject always like to hear about parrots finding there freedom and readapting to a live in the wild. Here is a small story brought to us by Stewart Metz of the Indonesian Parrot Project:

Click to read more ...

Parrots Have Colonized the Wilds of Brooklyn

Brooklyn Parrots. Image by Jeremy SetoNEW YORK -- Alex Joseph, a West Indian-born parks worker, rakes the lawn at the grandly gothic Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn when he and his fellow laborers hear what sounds like a flock of sea gulls dive-bombing at their heads. The workers instinctively duck and whip round and look up and see -- those crazy green parrots, expertly mimicking the sea gull's caw.

Click to read more ...

Introduced African Grey parrot on Tenerife

African Grey (Psittacus erithacus) living in Puerto de la Cruz, TenerifeWe always wondered why we hear so few rapports about feral African Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) that have escaped and live feral lives. Handbook of the birds of the world (vol. 4) mentions that many African cities have feral populations. But that's about the extend of the reports. No mention of population size or breeding success. We know African Greys are capable of living free-range lives. Many people that free-fly their parrots have second guesses with African greys as they are supposed to get lost more often than other species of parrot. But in Cumbria UK many free-range grey parrots live in and around the country house of our friend there and he does not experience any trouble with them.

Click to read more ...