Border Patrol seizes 2 valuable Amazon parrots

LA ROSITA, Texas -- U.S. Border Patrol agents have made an unusual bust while patrolling the U.S. shore along the lower Rio Grande near Rio Grande City.

A Border Patrol statement issued Monday says the agents were working near the river Sunday afternoon when they spotted two people walking north, carrying what appeared to be a birdcage.

When the agents hailed the pair, the two fled into nearby brush.

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Good News for Las Guacamayas: Illegal Parrot Trade Decreasing in Mexico

Defenders’ efforts to combat the illegal parrot trade in Mexico are working. Data on the number of birds seized by authorities over the past eight years show the illegal bird trade is declining. Last year only 566 parrots were seized by authorities, down nearly a third from the year before and the lowest number in almost ten years!

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Parrots Living Wild in American Cities

Red-crowned amazon in Palm Beach FLFrom San Francisco to South Florida, populations of nonnative parrots—some imperiled in their tropical homelands—are thriving in U.S. cities and suburbs

ON A STEAMY spring morning, Joe Barros and Paul Bithorn of the Tropical Audubon Society were driving around Miami with their windows down, listening for telltale squawks. Winding through golf courses, residential streets and downtown parks, the expert birders were searching for parrots, and they found them all over the city: yellow-chevroned parakeets crowding a backyard feeder, mitred parakeets preening in a melaleuca tree, a colorful flock of Amazons—lilac-crowned, yellow-headed and orange-winged parrots—on power lines, even a pair of blue-and-yellow macaws that flew into a nest in a dead royal palm. In all, Barros and Bithorn spotted 16 species of parrots before sundown, a number that would be difficult for a birder to top anywhere on the planet.

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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.

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The Nature Report: Backyard Parrots

Yellow headed amazon (Amazona oratrix) in Stuttgart, GermanySometimes you just don’t have to go any farther than your own backyard to enjoy some of the most beautiful birds the Rio Grande Valley has to offer.
 
I’ve got an old wooden feeder in my backyard that has been around for years, and lately the weathered platform has become a popular gathering spot for a variety of colorful parrots.
 
The yellow-headed parrots were the first to show up last year, and since then a stunning pair of red-lored parrots have also been visiting. 

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