This month as well as continuing with the work in Curu, I visited Tiskita, the second release site in the south of Costa Rica. In Tiskita, it is more tropical, so I had the opportunity to see squirrel monkeys and toucans in the wild as well of course, as more reintroduced scarlet macaws.

The macaws in Tiskita are much newer to living in the wild than the Curu birds, having only been released in the last year, and the difference between these two sets of birds is amazing. The Tiskita macaws have little wariness of humans and I spent a large part of my time there trying to scare the birds away from people. However apart from this, the macaws are surviving independently and they eat some of the wild food available to them, although it will take some time for them to find the range of food species that the macaws in Curu have found over the past five years.

In Curu I was delighted when one bird which hadn’t been seen for over two months notonlyreappeared, but was seen paired with Ronaldo, a macaw who also hadn’t been seen for several weeks. The pair were seen feeding each other and mating, so we now have three potential nesting pairs for the next season. I was able to see the returned bird’s band number, and she has now been named Eva. With the reappearance of this pair of macaws, I was able to get more of an idea about the social politics of the group. I noticed before that Ronaldo was rarely seen in the feeding station area at the same time as Emilio, the dominant macaw. This is still true, however I did have the opportunity to observe a brief interaction between the two pairs. One afternoon Emilio and his partner Talulah were at the feeding station, but when they heard other macaws approaching, they stopped eating and climbed up from the feeding tray, which they rarely do. The other macaws turned out to be Ronaldo and Eva, who didn’t eat, but stayed up in the trees nearby. After several minutes, Ronaldo and Eva flew off, but as they passed over the other pair at the feeding station, Talulah arched her wings in a threat display, something I had never seen from any of the birds in Curu previously. This supports my idea that the two pairs are close ranking, although Emilio and Talulah are probably still the more dominant pair.

Emilio and Talulah are still visiting the old nest, although we have also observed the group of three macaws visiting the area when the pair are not nearby. So it looks like there will be nesting activity in the tree hole again this year. Unfortunately, as it is dead, we cannot climb the tree itself, so we explored the possibility of climbing the trees either side of it and connecting them with a rope that will pass in front of the hole. However even this in impossible as the nest hole is higher than all the tallest trees surrounding it. This means next year we will again have to just watch the parents behaviour outside the nest in order to find out what’s happening inside. At least we won’t have to worry about poachers climbing the tree.

Unfortunately, as we have to wait for permits, the new macaws are unlikely to get to Curu before I leave in December. So for my last month we will put the finishing touches to the new cage and feeding station and I will continue to focus on the fascinating behaviour of the macaws already in Curu.

Amigos de las Aves, Curu - Report # 7 - September

After enjoying a lull in the rainy season for the past month or two in Curu, we are now moving into the wettest months of the year, which means monitoring the macaws has become a little more interesting. The river by the nest has risen dramatically, and the mangroves at the feeding station are now a mangrove swamp. Thankfully it still mostly rains at night, so we’ve been monitoring the macaws as usual.

At the feeding station I’ve been focusing on finding out the macaws’ band numbers. As the birds tend to fly off when approached, this is easier said than done but we now know the band numbers and therefore the sex of four more macaws, which means they can be named. Now, as well as Emilio and Talulah, who I mentioned last month, we now have Rico, the partner of the second highest ranking macaw and Jemima, who is usually seen with this pair. There are also Ringo, the lowest ranking macaw and Ronaldo who is not often seen with the others, but on one occasion he was seen chasing Emilio (the highest ranking macaw) from the feeding station, so he could be high ranking. We are waiting to find out the band numbers of the remaining macaws before we name them.

Aside from the feeding station, we have been trying to monitor the macaws at various nesting sites. Emilio and Talulah are still visiting the nest from last year, they spend a lot of time inside the hole, but we think they are only guarding the nest at this point. A group of three macaws (probably Rico, his partner and Jemima) has been seen visiting a farm next to Curu for the past month, but despite visiting the farm several times, we haven’t managed to see the macaws there, to find out what they are doing. It is likely the pair are checking out a nest hole there for next year, although they have been seen eating teak seeds in the area as well. Several months ago, a pair were seen investigating a third nest hole, but they have not been seen there since, and black marks under the hole could mean it has been taken over by bees. We may find out this is a big problem for the macaws here, as last week we found out the hard way that one of the artificial nest boxes is filled with a bees nest. As we were checking out the tree for climbing, the bees descended and attacked us, stinging me on the lip and making me look like I’d had a disastrous botox injection until the next day. Needless to say, we didn’t climb that tree, we chose another of the nest boxes ( after checking it carefully with binoculars) and found only leaves and an iguana skin inside. We will soon start adding more nest boxes, and filling them with wood chips for the macaws to use in future breeding seasons.

Two large barrel nest boxes, however will be saved for the new cage. Hopefully, aside from giving the new macaws something to play in, they will help make the macaws comfortable with artificial boxes, and will encourage future nesting in them in the wild. The release flight is nearly ready now, and we are just waiting for the permits to bring the birds to Curu.

Lastly we are continuing with the phenology study, and at the moment we have ten tree species seeding. Luckily a group of venturers from Raleigh international have just arrived in Curu to carry out a mangrove study, and they will be helping us count all the seeds.

Amigos de las Aves, Curu - Report # 6 - August

The last month has been pretty interesting for macaw behaviour in Curu. We are now only observing the nest a few times per week but early this month I was surprised to see three macaws in the nest area. At first I thought a chick had finally fledged, but I quickly dismissed this idea when the three birds started fighting. This always seemed to be started off by one of the birds entering the nest, which made the other two attack the hole. This went on until the afternoon, with the macaws fighting so intensely that several times the birds fell from the tree together, only to fly back to the nest to continue fighting.

The battle had calmed down a little by the time I left in the evening and the next day there was no fighting, although this time the number of macaws in the area had gone up to five. Again only one ever entered the nest hole, and this was the same bird that had entered the nest the day before, from later identification at the feeding station, this bird is one of the original nest pair. He’s now named Emilio after the first scarlet macaw I worked with, who got me hooked on macaws by biting my ear! The following day there were only two birds at the nest again, and they seemed to be acting the same as ever, but later at the feeding station I noticed Emilio was paired with a new bird (now called Talulah).

This was all very intriguing, however we were able to come up with some possible explanations two weeks later when we found the remains of a dead macaw. It’s ring identified it as the other of the original nest pair, and it had been dead for some time. For now it is impossible to know why or when this macaw died, but it is feasible that it died just before the nest battle and the fighting started when the other pair saw the opportunity to take over the nest.

The macaws have also been behaving interestingly at the feeding station and a dominance hierarchy has become apparent lately. In one flock of four birds, it has always been clear that one macaw was more dominant than the others, and he spends most of his time chasing the other macaws (apart from his partner) from the feeding trays. But they do sometimes eat peacefully together, apart from when Emilio is at the feeding station, that is. It’s rare that all six birds come to the feeding station at the same time, but when they are it seems Emilio is dominant over all the others, and will not let them eat when he is around. There is also one bird who is particularly low ranking, and often stays behind once the other birds have gone so he can eat in peace.

I was able to see how natural our macaws’ behaviour really is, when I visited Carara National Park at the beginning of the month. Here there is a population of approximately 350 wild macaws, and it was pleasing to see just how few behavioural differences there are between the two sets of macaws. Also while I was at Carara, I helped with the daily macaw counts, which was definitely a very special experience. This involved counting the number of macaws flying into the park as the sun rose from where they roost at night in the nearby mangrove reserve. In one morning we counted over 160 macaws!

Back in Curu we have started building the new release flight for the next nine birds. So with the other macaws in the reserve by the end of this month, we’ll be a little closer to having our own wild population, although it may be some time before we are counting 160 macaws in one morning!

Amigos de las Aves, Curu - Report # 5 - July

I reported last month that we have nine macaws in Curu, but I am pleased to say now there are ten. Unfortunately this is not because a chick fledged from the nest, as we’ve been hoping, but the 10th bird is one of the original thirteen released here.

This, of course is still good news, and I was very excited to see a different bird arrive at the feeding station. It was immediately obvious that this was a macaw I hadn’t seen before as most of it’s tail feathers are broken, and there are lots of marks on it’s face and beak. Of course there’s no way of knowing what happened to this 10th macaw to make it look so bad, we also don’t why we haven’t seen it at the feeding station before, but we know it is one of the released birds as it has a ring on it’s foot. Whatever did happen to this macaw, it seems to be healthy now, and I’ve seen the bird several times since.

As for the nest, the pair are still visiting the nest tree regularly, and the ‘chick’ still hasn’t fledged. At this point, with the expected fledging of the chick being so overdue, it is unlikely that anything will happen, especially considering that the breeding season usually ends in May. The reason the macaws are still visiting the nest daily and feeding each other remains a mystery. It is possible that the pair are guarding the nest hole for next breeding season, as we’ve seen other pairs investigating both this and other nest holes. However these other pairs only look into the holes, and do not stay for long, whereas the nest pair stay inside the hole for hours at a time. So while there is still a possibility of a chick being in the nest, we will continue to observe it, but less regularly.

Instead of monitoring the nest for most of the time now, we have started the tree phenology study, so we tagged the last 65 trees and started collecting data at the beginning of August. This means estimating the number of seeds on each tree every two weeks, giving us an idea of how much natural food is available for the macaws. At the moment only four species in the study (40 trees) have seeds, although we estimated the number of seeds on one Teak tree to be over 7000, so the macaws certainly have enough food! This may explain why lately fewer birds have been eating at the feeding station, hopefully with time we will be able to see this relationship more clearly.

Also this month I started learning to climb trees, now we have the equipment. This can help in the phenology study, as the seeds of some trees can not be accurately counted from the ground.The main reason though, is to be able to climb up to nests (providing they are not dead, like our present nest tree) and help move and put up artificial nest boxes for the next breeding season.

Lastly the spider monkey release is now well underway, and I have been helping move the monkeys to a remote part of Curu. This is not as easy as it sounds. As I mentioned before we have to take the monkeys by boat, so they can’t find the way back, the beach there is rocky, and the only way to get ashore is to climb up the rocks while huge waves crash against us. We then have to climb a steep cliff, all this with monkeys in cages, and yes, it is as difficult as it sounds!

Luckily the macaws aren’t as much of a problem, and after such dramatic monkey releases, the reintroduction of the next nine macaws is going to seem just too easy!

Amigos de las Aves, Curu - Report # 4 - June

Here in Curu, we are approaching the 100th day of observing our nest, and if there is achick, then it’s taking a long time to fledge. For this nest, we can only guess the age of the chick, as we cannot safely climb the tree to check. However after looking again at the early data, it is possible that there may have been eggs in the nest until the 8th or 9th day of monitoring, making the chick nearer to 90 days old now. This is still old for a chick to be in the nest, but at the Amigos de las Aves breeding centre, a parent-reared chick recently fledged at 89 days old. When you also take into account that the birds in Curu were hand-reared, and this is probably their first nesting attempt, it is to be expected that the first chick will take longer to leave the nest. Recently I have also observed promising feeding behaviours, like the parents regurgitating food before entering the nest. This is encouraging, as it suggests there is something in the nest, so we haven’t just been watching an empty tree hole, but it could also explain why the fledging is taking so long, as often the parents have to coax the chick out of the nest by feeding it less. This is something the macaws will (hopefully) learn with experience for future years.

Although nest-monitoring has dominated my time even more than usual this month, we have started preparing for the foraging study. This meant tagging and measuring 75 trees throughout Curu, and we will tag 25 more before we start the study in August. As well as this, I have also been spending a little time observing the other birds at the feeding station. This has been useful as I have now come to a point where I can identify each of the of the macaws individually by the subtle differences in the yellow band on their wings. Now I can confirm that we have nine scarlet macaws remaining in Curu: three pairs, and three single birds.

This number will soon be doubled, however, as permits for the reintroduction of another nine Scarlet Macaws should be obtained in October. Now all of a sudden, we have a lot of organising to do, as the birds will be moved to Curu in September, to give them at least a month to acclimatise to the hotter, more humid weather and different surroundings here. During this time we will need to collect local fruits and seeds every day, to wean them off their present diet. Before the birds even get here, however, we have to build a new flight cage and feeding station in a different location, as the old cage has held Spider Monkeys for some time now, and may retain viruses and bacteria. This new cage and feeding station will also be used for future releases.

Apart from what’s been happening with the macaws there’s been a lot of other things going on in Curu lately. A new volunteer arrived this month to co-ordinate the Spider Monkey release, now this should also be happening in the next month or two and I will be involved with this as well. Unfortunately, within a few days of this volunteer starting, four of the spider monkeys escaped through a hole in the roof of the cage, and as these monkeys have no fear of humans, they caused havoc wherever they could. Thankfully they are all back in the cage now and when they are released, it will be in a place far from any people, and accessed only by boat!

Lastly, I was fortunate enough to witness a Pacific Green Turtle nesting on the beach, so as well as waiting for the chick to fledge, and preparing for two release projects, I’ll also be looking out for the turtle hatchlings in the next month.

Amigos de las Aves, Curu - Report #3 - May

In Costa Rica, the rainy season has now started. This means the macaw’s breeding season should have finished, but in the last month there’s been a baby (or chick) boom for both the Great Greens and the Scarlet Macaws at the breeding centre in Alajuela. Instead of hand-rearing these chicks, most of the babies have been left in the nest boxes for the parents to raise. There is even one Scarlet Macaw chick which is being raised by foster parent birds, as it wasn’t being fed by it’s own parents. This means when the chicks are released in a few years, we can see how their behaviour compares with that of hand-reared birds, and how the raising methods of reintroduced macaws affects their survival in the wild.

In Curu, we are still monitoring the first nest we discovered in March, and the start of the wet season has made this much more difficult. Firstly all the trees have far more leaves now, so where the nest was easily visible before, there are now branches full of leaves in front of it. A second problem the rains have caused is that Rio Curu is now flowing in the previously dry river-bed in which we sit whilst observing the nest. Fortunately it is still possible to sit on a high part of the creek bed which hasn’t been flooded yet, but getting there is becoming a daily challenge.

All this seems to be worthwhile, however, as we now have over 200 hours of nest observations, and preliminary analysis of this data looks promising. The amount of time the parent birds have been spending in the nest is decreasing as time goes on, and the time spent out of the area has increased. This fits in with nesting data from truly wild scarlet macaws in the nearby Carara National Park, and the data suggests the chick is close to fledgling age. Hopefully the nestling will fledge before it gets to the point where we have to monitor the nest from a boat!

The second nest we discovered being used by a pair of macaws, was never quite so promising. While the birds were there each morning, their behaviour was very inconsistent, and they used to disappear in the afternoons, so it was always unlikely there were chicks or eggs in the nest. Last month, I was able to confirm this, as the tree fell down, probably because it was weakened by the rains, but after checking the area, apart from a few adult feathers, there was nothing where the nest used to be. This, however, isn’t as bad as you might think, as the tree was in just about the worst possible position for a pair of macaws to have a nest. It was right next to the main road, so it was visible to every one on it, and while the local community are generally in support of macaw conservation, there was still a risk of poaching in such a visible tree. Because of this, we were considering blocking up the hole to prevent the macaws using it next breeding season, but it looks like we won’t have to now! It also means we definitely wont be climbing the other nest, which is also dead, in case the same thing happens.

In addition to gathering nesting data, we have also observed the macaws feeding on two new tree species, a tree locally known as Jocote, and a non-native species, the African Oil Palm. These trees can now be tagged, and will be part of our foraging study in which we will estimate the amount of natural foods available to the macaws over the course of a year. This way we can see how much the macaws use wild foods, compared to the sunflower seeds we put out each day at the feeding station.

Amigos de las Aves, Curu - Report #2 - April

The good news this month is the pair of macaws we disovered using a nest hole in March, are still nesting. The bad news (for me at least) is that with the seasons changing from dry to wet, the insects have come out in full force to torment me while I monitor the nest.

Luckily this hasn’t been enough to put me off, and most of my time this month has been spent at the nest tree, which is still looking promising. The pair has been seen at the tree hole everyday since we found it, but they are spending more time away from it lately. Unfortunately we wont be able to climb the tree to check what’s happening in the nest hole, as it looks like the tree is rotten most of the way down. This means it would probably collapse if we climbed it, making it unsafe for us, and of course defeating the object by destroying the nest! We did, however, find out from locals that the pair was seen in the area for about a month before we arrived in Curu. So from this, and their behaviour at the moment, we think there is a chick (or maybe even two) in the nest, and if there is a fledgling, we shouldn’t have too long to wait.

I have also been observing a second nest we discovered being used by a pair of macaws, but this wasn’t quite so promising. A pair were using this tree earlier on in the breeding season, but abandoned it before I came out here. So we were surprised to find a pair (perhaps the same one) visiting the nest again. However, while they were there each morning, their behaviour was very inconsistent, and they used to disappear in the afternoons, so it was always unlikely there were chicks or eggs in the nest. This morning, I was able to confirm this, as overnight, the tree fell down, probably because it was weakened by the recent rains, but after checking the area, apart from a few adult feathers, there was nothing where the nest used to be. This, however, isn’t as bad as you might think, as the tree was in just about the worst possible position for a pair of macaws to have a nest. It was right next to the main road, so it was visible to every one on it, and while the local community are generally in support of macaw conservation, there was still a risk of poaching in such a visible tree. Because of this, we were considering blocking up the hole to prevent the macaws using it next breeding season, but it looks like we won’t have to now! It also means we definitely wont be climbing the other nest, in case the same thing happens.

With the two nests there hasn’t been time for much else this month. However, when we’ve had the opportunity we’ve been monitoring the feeding station so that we can find out how much the macaws eat now, compared to how much they eat in the wet season and the rest of the year. We have also started identifying trees for the foraging study, in which we will estimate the amount of natural foods availadle to the macaws over the course of a year. This way we can see how much the macaws use wild foods, compared to the sunflower seeds we put out each day at the feeding station.

In between all this, I’ve been helping treat a sick spider monkey, as well as feeding the rest of the troop who are part of another release program at Curu. So it’s still very eventful out here, and unfortunately with the rainy season, the insects are only going to get worse. If I haven’t been eaten alive by mosquitoes and sandflies by this time next month, I’ll let you know how we’re getting on.

Amigos de las Aves, Curu - Report #1 - March

This month I’ve been able to see what goes on at Amigos de las Aves on all levels. The first half of this month was spent at the breeding centre for Great Green and Scarlet Macaws, in Alajuela. This is the home of the breeding birds, their chicks, and the babies from last year in the juvenile flight. As well as this is a disabled flight where macaws taken from the wild by poachers, and then confiscated by the government are kept. Most of these birds have damaged wings from being caught, and won’t be able to fly properly again, however they may be able to join the breeding program as parent birds in the future.

Another flight holds the nine scarlet macaws to be released in Curu, where I’ll be working until December. These birds are in beautiful condition, and have already started forming pair bonds. The permits for the release of these birds are being processed at the moment, but it’s likely the macaws will be released at the end of this year.

For the second half of this month I’ve been in Curu in the north west of Costa Rica. Curu is a nature reserve, and is brimming with wildlife. There are many common mammal and reptile species, and at least 150 species of birds, but the Scarlet Macaws are without doubt the most beautiful birds here (although I may be a little biased). When they fly, the red blue and yellow on their wings flash in a stunning display of colour, and coupled with their fanned out tails they truly are breathtaking.

Since their release in 1999, the macaws have learnt to survive without our help, and find their own food. However, in order to allow us to monitor the macaws, and to keep them in the area, sunflower seeds are provided at a feeding station each day. At Curu, I observe the macaws at the feeding station most afternoons, and during this time, I have been learning to tell the birds apart by the yellow band on their wings. This is like a fingerprint, and is different on every bird, once I can confidently identify each bird I will be able to provide a count of the present flock members.

However, after only a week in Curu, we made the exciting discovery that a pair is nesting in an old tree hole. Our observations at first showed one bird to fly off for up to 2.5 hours, then come back and feed it’s partner and now the birds are spending more time away from the nest together. We think at this stage, that the pair may have chicks, and that we found the nest part of the way through the nesting attempt. In addition we discovered a second nest hole being frequnted by another pair of Macaws. The behaviour of this pair, however is very inconsistent, and we think this may just be an unsuccessful first breeding attempt, and the nest is unlikely to fledge chicks.

As well as monitoring the nest hole and the feeding station, in the next month we will be starting a foraging study, to investigate which plants the macaws use as food sources, and at what time of the year. In addition to this, we will be mapping the reserve and investigating the ranging patterns of the macaws inside and outside the reserve. So it looks like we’ll have a lot to do here, and I’m sure there are going to be other things turning up, to keep us even busier.

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