Spix's macaws soar over a breeding facility project in their native habitat in a rural area of Curaca, Bahia state, Brazil, Tuesday, March 12, 2024. All Spix's macaws are majestically blue in the blazing sun of Brazil's Northeast, but each bird is distinct to Candice and Cromwell Purchase. As the parrots soar squawking past their home, the couple can readily identify bird No. 17 by its smooth feathers and can tell No. 16 from No. 22, which has two beads attached to its radio collar.
"A dry area only gets rain for a very short period of the year. A drought in that period might go an entire year before you're going to get your next rain," said Purchase, a tall and slim 46-year-old. "The animals are adapted to harsh environments, but they are on the edge. Any small increment of change will decimate populations."
In the face of the changing climate and numerous challenges, at every turn the Purchases have dedicated the better part of their adult lives to breeding Spix's macaws and reintroducing them into nature. The journey first took the biologists to work with a private collection on an oasis in Qatar. When the birds were transferred to a nonprofit organization, the couple moved with them to Germany.
All released birds were equipped with radio collars designed to resist macaws' strong bills. Each collar has an antenna. The Purchases and their assistant check the birds' locations three times a day. Unlike depictions in the animated films "Rio" and "Rio 2," which brought attention to the Spix's macaw extinction threat, the parrot's natural habitat is far from Brazil's most famous city, Rio de Janeiro, and the Amazon rainforest. It lives among the sparse, thorny, low caatinga vegetation that often loses greenery during dry periods. And the bird uses the Caraibeira, a towering evergreen tree that grows near small intermittent creeks, for nesting and food.
"The project is already a success. They are free," said Maria de Lourdes Oliveira, whose family leased part of their land for reforestation. "The most difficult thing was to arrive in Brazil. I cried when I saw them going to freedom and flapping their wings."The Associated Press' climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations.
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