St. Mark's Refuge biologist takes bird houses to Belize
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Blue Crowned Conure. Image by: Salvatore Angius
To say that Salvatore Angius has a passion for parrots is an understatement.
Angius, based out of Long Beach, Calif., is the creator of Californiaflocks, a preservation "dedicated to tracking, filming, photographing, and documenting the vast and diverse species of naturalized parrots throughout California."
Poached parrots nestlings at the rescue centre. Illegal trafficking of native parrots for house pets has been an escalating problem over the past several years. These birds are captured at a very young age to be sold as pets in the illegal pet trade market. The process results not only in the destruction of trees and life-long nests, but usually the death of the majority of the hatchlings that are taken for the pet trade.