A memory from 20 years ago, by Rosemary Low

There are almost exactly 400 species of parrots, of which at least 270 have been traded worldwide. The trapping of birds is not decreasing, as most people might imagine, but actually increasing in very recent years due to the bad economic situation in some countries, poverty and the ease of selling illegally caught parrots through the internet.

Some species have never been in captivity. There are two reasons: they cannot be kept alive – Pygmy Parrots (Micropsitta), for example, which feed mainly on lichens, or they inhabit remote areas difficult of access, usually mountainous ones.

One of the latter is the Fuertes’ or Indigo-winged Parrot (Hapalopsittaca fuertesi) from the Andes of Colombia. Fuertes’ Parrot weighs about 130g, and is about the same size and weight as a Red-capped Parrot (Pionopsitta pileata).

Until the very early years of this century it was believed to be extinct due to the destruction of the montane cloud forest. Even the height of the Central Cordillera, where it occurs up to 3,500m (11,300ft), had not protected its ecosystem which consists of a dense growth of trees and shrubs that rarely exceed 4.5m (15ft) in height. It occurs above cloud and elfin forest, in other words, it is as high as you can get, and cold, often with frost at night. You would not think this was the habitat of a small parrot.

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