Bird Endowment -- Saving Blue-throated Macaws at The Blues Conservatory

Bird Endowment committed to fund a minimum of 20 nest boxes to be erected in Bolivia. In January, we asked you to donate to the project. So many responded that 34 nest boxes are being erected -- surpassing the goal by 70 percent!
THANK YOU.

Saving the Blues™ in Bolivia:
El Beni-Factor & Nido Adoptivo™

To help in Saving the Blues™ in Bolivia, Bird Endowment, in cooperation with the Armonia / Loro Parque Fundacion Blue-throated Macaw Conservation Program, has originated and developed an annual funding project named Nido Adoptivo™. It empowers participation by domestic aviculturists and bird lovers, each of whom will be honored as a "Beni-Factor™" for a year. The 2007 donors will be known hereafter as Founders of the annual program. The Founders are:

EL BENI-FACTORS™

Katy Secor, Massachusetts
Eva Dicker, California
Claire Dicker, California
Dr. and Mrs. Robert Stonebreaker, California
Parrot University, North Carolina
Margo Rose, California
Kathryne Thorpe, Virginia
Jennifer White, North Carolina
Deborah Stambul, California
PEAC-Cleveland, Ohio
Janice Boyd, Louisiana
Kelly and Spencer Wheeler, Washington
France Archambault, Texas
Hank Greer, South Carolina
Laurel Greer, South Carolina
Paige Greer, South Carolina
Ryan Greer, South Carolina
Reid Greer, South Carolina
Emma Greer, South Carolina
Hayden Greer, South Carolina
Evan Greer, South Carolina
Bolivar the BTM, Pennsylvania
Attila Molnar, DVM, California
Aurelia Lynn Friedman, California
Vicki Baiamonte, Texas
Rocky Mountain Society of Aviculture, Colorado
Rocky Mountain Society of Aviculture, Colorado
Lisa Johnson, Arizona
Greg and Patty Muzic, Ohio
Northwest Exotic Bird Society, Washington
Companion Bird Club of Delaware Valley, Pennsylvania

IN MEMORIAM

Harry Heidenreich, by The Leather Elves, Massachusetts
Rita Tindall, by Ark-La-Tex Caged Bird Club, Louisiana
Baby Giselle, by Wendy's Parrots, Texas

Situation with nesting opportunities

The loss of suitable tree nesting cavities appears to be a limiting factor for the populations of hole nesting birds in lowland Bolivian savannahs, particularly the Blue-throated Macaw in the Beni Department. Many suitable nest holes have been lost because of annual grassland burning destroying dead forest-edge trees, cattle trampling affecting forest regeneration, and deliberate destruction of nesting trees by illegal trappers after Macaw chicks.

Experimental artificial nest boxes have been placed within the Blue-throated macaws home ranges. Of 20 boxes placed in palm trees, 18 were used by cavity-nesting species during the initial 2005-06 trial (one was used by a Blue-throated Macaw pair in an unsuccessful nesting).

The results of the experiment clearly show nest competition in Beni to be extremely high. There is a risk that the provision of nest boxes will favor the more aggressive species over the Blue-throated Macaws. In response, designs in Beni-Factor's Nido Adoptivo™ program will be designed to favor the Blue-throated macaws and deter or exclude competitor species.

Principal objective of Nido Adoptivo™

The Nido Adoptivo™ objective is to increase the annual reproductive output of the Blue-throated Macaw wild population by installing nest boxes across their range and providing new funding annually to replace, maintain, monitor, and guard the boxes. Bird Endowment's exclusive El Beni-Factors™ program is a cooperative effort with Armonia.

Nido Adoptivo™ benefits
wild Blue-throated macaws
and rewards El-Beni-Factor donors

The 2008 edition of Nido Adoptivo™ is now accepting donations eventhough the Official Launch has not yet been announced. In our unique program your donation of $250 will fund:

• Initial construction and installation of a supplemental nest box. (As a donor, you may choose two initials to personalize your sponsored nest box. Also, you will receive general GPS coordinates of the nest box location and will be able to use Google satellite to locate its geographical / topographical location via the internet.)

• One year of weekly monitoring for data collection at each nest by a field biologist in the BTM project who will inspect contents and record usage and inter-species interactions.

• You will recieve two site-specific reports from Armonia. The reports comprise an initial one and a breeding year end report.

Related actions integral to the success of Nido Adoptivo™ are also funded by your donation and these inclue:

• Ongoing nest guarding and monitoring

• Maintaining an adequate level of population monitoring and occasional new surveys

• Monitoring illegal trafficking

• Providing education programs

El Beni-Factors™ are acknowledged on this BE web page and will receive a framed BE participation certificate like this one.

Field work starting
on El-Beni nestboxes™

Bird Endowment's El Beni-Factors program in 2007 funded 34 of the boxes now going up in Blue-throated Macaw range of Bolivia.

Following is a Sept. 4 Update from Bennett Hennessey in Bolivia:

Had a meeting with Mauricio yesterday. All seems to be going well. We are going to put up 50 boxes in the southern end, and another 10 in the Santa Ana area. Santa Ana de Yucuma is north of Trinidad on the other side of Rio Mamore. It looks like there is a good populaiton of BTM there -- where we are thinking of also buying a reserve. But the area is flooded for six months of the year.

Nancho will be doing most of the Loreto (southern end) nest work. He has your list, and will go out placing nest now, on the ground. Most will be set up on Totai Palm trees. These are the small palms, usually with a two feet thick trunk. Mauricio says they are good because the BTM likes them for holes, they give a dense canopy for shade and rain, and the base is covered with long sharp spikes which will protect the nest (hmmm, maybe why BTM likes them).

When they are all situated, a team with ladders will go out to each one and put them up. It is supposed to be a real hassle this part, taking a few hours each. When we have the sites, Nancho will develop his monitoring plan. We are varying the nests in groups of 10, some with small holes, some high up, some low, to see what they like.

Nancho has the list, and knows where the nests will go. I would imagine there might be some variation, trees can fall, but it should be straight forward.

If Nancho finds Blue and Yellow Macaws using a hole, he will block the hole and leave the nest useless for more or less 10 days. But if a bird is in the nest with eggs, we will leave it alone. We will also not block off if other birds are using the nest like Black-bellied Whistling ducks, Laughing Falcon, etc.

-- Bennett Hennessey

You can use this PayPal button to become a $250 El Beni-Factor for 2008