12 Birds Back From The Brink

12 Birds Back From The Brink — page 1 — 1 COLORFUL PUERTO RICAN PARROTS SOAR ONCE AGAIN parrots nesting trees New trees became hard to find after people cut down forests for farms Farmers planted citrus trees coffee plants and sugar cane By 1975 only 13 Puerto Rican parrots were left in the wild Several government agencies in Puerto Rico and the United States worked together to start the Puerto Puerto Rican parrots have flashy colors Their green feathers are tipped with blue These parrots gather in flocks and squawk loudly They nest in holes in tall trees They search for food in the forest’s canopy But their numbers started to fall after humans came on the scene Puerto Rican parrots settled the main island of Puerto Rico long before people arrived Approximately 1 million parrots lived on the island at the beginning of the 1500s But over time they began to face many dangers People trapped the parrots They sold them as pets and as food Red-tailed hawks ate their eggs and chicks Hurricanes blew down some of the 4 Puerto Rican parrots are the only parrots native to the United States

12 Birds Back From The Brink — page 2 — IUCN RED LIST The International Union for the Conservation of Nature IUCN keeps a list of all threatened species in the world called the Red List Each species is labeled according to how at risk it is Least Concern Not considered at risk Near Threatened At risk of being vulnerable or endangered in the future Vulnerable At risk of extinction Endangered At high risk of extinction Critically Endangered At extremely high risk of extinction Extinct in the Wild Only lives in captivity Extinct No members of a species are left Rican Parrot Recovery Program This program was launched in 1972 to help the parrots recover in the wild so they would no longer be endangered Scientists collected 7 Number of years it took for the first chick to be born in captivity Status Critically endangered Population Approximately 100 in the wild Home Puerto Rico Life Span Up to 50 years eggs and chicks from the wild They raised the parrots in aviaries The first chick was born in 1979 It took scientists years to learn more about the birds and how to hatch them The more scientists learned the more successful they became By 2013 almost 400 parrots were being raised in captivity Later the scientists released some parrots in the Rio Abajo State Forest and El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico The parrots started building nests in the forests and hatching chicks By 2013 more than 100 birds could be tracked in the wild Another 400 lived in captivity 5

12 Birds Back From The Brink — page 3 — 2 BALD EAGLES MAKE A BIG COMEBACK Bald eagles have wings that span up to eight feet 2 4 m These large birds use their strong talons to fish They also use them to snare prey such as raccoons Bald eagle pairs mate for life They build huge stick nests where they tend to their eggs But pesticides threatened the eagles ability to hatch eggs A new pesticide called DDT started being used in 1939 People used it to kill insects that spread diseases or destroyed crops But DDT also washed into lakes and rivers and poisoned the fish Bald eagles ate the fish The chemicals in DDT caused the eagles eggs to have very thin shells The shells broke open before the chicks were ready to hatch Once hundreds of thousands of bald eagles soared across the United States They became America’s national bird in 1782 But by 1963 their numbers had fallen to 417 nesting pairs They were listed as endangered in 1973 The Environmental Protection Agency banned DDT in 1972 The Clean Water Act was also passed 6 l Bald eagles can most B ld Bald eagles can most Bald eagles can most often be spotted near often be spotted near often be spotted near bodies of water bodies of water bodies of water

12 Birds Back From The Brink — page 4 — The bald eagle is one of the largest raptor species in 1972 It limited the amount of pollution going into waterways where eagles fished As their food sources became safer bald eagles made a comeback In 2007 they were taken off the US Endangered Species List At that time more than 10,000 breeding pairs were nesting across the United States 7,000 Number of feathers a bald eagle has Status Least concern Population Approximately 10,000 breeding pairs Home North America Life Span 15 30 years 7

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