Integrating Core Habitat, Connectivity, and Communities: the Thick-Billed Parrot Case
Picture a rugged terrain scattered with high reliefs and steep canyons, covered with oaks, junipers, pines, and on the highest reaches, towering over the forest floor below, spruce and fir trees. This is the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range, an ecoregion spanning from “Sky Islands” around the U.S.- Mexico border, down to the Mexican state of Jalisco: home to one of the most species-rich regions in North America. Nestled deep in the heart of this landscape we hear high-pitched squawks from a distance, occasional rhythmic bursts that emulate human laughter. A burst of brilliant green with scarlet accents appears, a flock of birds whose yellow stripes appear when in flight. We’ve found the only parrot species once endemic to the United States–the thick-billed parrot.
Yes, you read that right – American parrots!
Ask most people where parrots live and, undoubtedly, you'll hear about jungles and rainforests. If pressed, most would probably place them in Central or South America.
It’s true that the majority of parrot species live farther south, but the thick-billed parrots make their home in the northern parts of Mexico, and used to flock as far north as the southwestern United States.
Unfortunately, these brilliant birds can no longer be found throughout their historic range in Arizona or New Mexico. Like too many other species, they were extirpated by human activities such as logging and the pet trade in the last centuries. Rather, they now spend practically the entire year in the mountain ecosystems of central and western Mexico, feeding on pine cone seeds, oak acorns, and agave fruits. Then, in the summer, they migrate to breed in high elevation forests of Chihuahua, Sonora, and northwestern Durango, being very particular about their preferred nesting habitat: ancient forests abundant in hollow, dead, standing trees where they can build their nests thousands of meters above sea level.
While Mexico has retained its population, it forests are by no means a secure refuge. For more than forty years, intensive logging, some of it clandestine, has plagued the parrot’s home, limiting the space for the population to find refuge and grow. Because of this ongoing struggle, the thick-billed parrot is federally and internationally listed as endangered; today their population consists of approximately only 2,800 individuals.
Wildlands Network is committed to reconnecting, restoring and rewilding North America. In our view, rewilding requires creating the conditions for recovery of species that fill important ecological niches. Plants, animals, and the entire diversity of life interact with each other to create dynamic and resilient landscapes. It’s paramount that we, as humans, do our best to save and protect species that, through their behavior and presence, help create the conditions that support everything else.
In forests, parrots, like other birds, fill a particularly important niche. Their reliance on seeds and nuts means that they help spread and propagate the forest’s native trees and shrubs. Thick-billed parrots are also intricately dependent on old growth forest, as their nesting habitat lies in the most ancient and undisturbed conifer stands, thus binding their conservation to the preservation of this unique type of forests.
“The remaining remnants of mature coniferous forests in Mexico are seriously threatened by human activities and climate change.”
In 2000, Wildlands Network realized that through innovative partnership we could help support both the restoration and rewilding of the forest and the parrots. Protecting the parrot’s current home would support continued function of mature and old growth forests, which is critical for sustaining local biodiversity, safeguarding water sources and continuing to sequester carbon. Additionally, by protecting and connecting the anchor of the Western Wildway (core native wildlife habitat areas and the corridor that connects them) with our partners, we are safeguarding other species such as jaguar, bear, puma, and ocelot.
Working with Pronatura Noreste (a local NGO operating in Northeast Mexico), Wildlands Network helped direct funding to an area known as “Las Cebadillas,” important for active nesting parrots. Using financial incentives, Wildlands Network and Pronatura Noreste reached an agreement with the community that would conserve the bird’s nesting grounds over the course of the next 15 years, via ongoing funding for conservation to replace money they would otherwise have earned from extracting resources unsustainably from the forest. Our efforts were later strengthened when this same area was legally established as a conservation zone, at the core of the larger Tutuaca Natural Protected Area, providing it with one of the most effective legal protection mechanisms in Mexico.
This first step was necessary, but not sufficient for the restoration and recovery of the parrots and the forest.
Direct development and logging threats were immediately mitigated, but the looming crisis of human-caused climate change remained. Over the last decade, our partners and the community members have come to better understand how climate change now threatens this forest home, in the form of intense and unpredictable wildfires. Higher temperatures and fierce winds, combined with a legacy in the region of natural fire suppression and poor implementation of fire management, has increased the frequency and intensity of these wildfires, threatening the parrot’s forest home. In the past years numerous parrots have been killed by fire and nests have been destroyed.
So, in 2022, Wildlands Network shifted our focus to training and supporting the local communities to respond to the wildfires that are ravaging the region’s coniferous forests.
By partnering with Pronatura Noreste and the local communities, a wildlife response plan will ensure the long-term protection of the thick-billed parrot. Photos: Pronatura Noreste, Miguel Ángel Cruz
“The remaining remnants of mature coniferous forests in Mexico are seriously threated by human activities and climate change. Conservation actions for these fragile ecosystems are of great importance because the conservation of the biodiversity associated with them depend on it, such is the case of the thick-billed parrot,” says Wildlands Network Northwestern Mexico Program Co-Director Carlos Castillo.
We again partnered with Pronatura Noreste to support local community development of a wildlife response plan. This plan will include training in fire and fuel management, creating fire breaks, use of fire-fighting equipment, and other community fire response tactics.
The formation of a habitat management plan, focused on reducing the risk to thick-billed parrot nests, will empower the community to be long-term stewards of the forest in the face of changing climate. Their brigade will be more than just the first line of defense when a fire strikes in the remote region, it will actually be in a position to manage fire strategically into the future.
In preparation for each upcoming fire season, a group of 10 firefighters from Conoachi is removing vast quantities of branches, leaves, grass, and other vegetation creating firebreaks and diminishing the presence of combustible material in old cutting roads that can dramatically increase the intensity of a wildfire. The community with the technical support from Tutuaca Natural Protected Area staff also conducts an annual evaluation of the state of the bird’s natural and artificial nests.
We are confident that together with our local partners the thick-billed parrot’s beloved ancient forests will be conserved and the long-term threat posed by wildfires will decrease.
“We believe the conservation of the habitat of the thick-billed parrot is essential because besides being home to species of ecological importance, it’s where we collect the water that we use for our domestic and agricultural chores. That is why we have chosen to be the guardians of these forests,” said Adan Mendoza, head of the community firefighting group in Bavicora de Conoachi.
What would it be like to take a hike in the Coronado National Forest in southern Arizona and hear the chatter and calling burst from the pines? To watch the brilliant emerald, ruby, and gold shades paint the sky as the birds take flight? To live in an America where it is more likely that you’ll see a parrot in the wild instead than in a pet store? Wildlands Network intend to find out.
