Famished Yet Not

Famished Yet Not

This was taken at the "secret place" in Great Ocean Road. There were many parrots and ducks loittering about the place uncaged. Why? Because thre is food! This one in fact was captured when my friend was feeding it and that is why it is so still! Notice the details of the feather at the back of the eye, considering I was using my kit 18-55 lens.

The people of South America, Indonesia, and other lands are often so poor that they try to smuggle parrots out of the country to earn a living. 90% of these birds die in transport. The methods of capture and transfer are extremely barbaric and the birds suffer tremendously before their ultimate death. The few that do survive are usually physically and emotionally traumatized. Sometimes if a parrot is captured for its feathers it is not smuggled, but the feathers are plucked instead of allowing them to be molted naturally.

Native American Indians use feathers for their traditional religious ceremonies and that contributes to the demand for parrot feathers which is one reason parrots are so cruelly smuggled. Feathers from all species are useful but Macaw feathers are especially desired by the American Indians. Dr. Reyman said that since this project has been giving feathers to the Native American Indians (free of charge) that the price for a center macaw feather has gone down from $75 to about $25. But the demand for these feathers is still there. They can even take feathers with broken shafts and cut feathers as shown on his website and all feathers over an inch in size can be put to good use. So please save them all, even cut wing feather feathers! They can also use turkey feathers, for those of you out there that know turkey hunters.

Many people toss away their feathers because they don't know what to do with them. By doing this, we can help to keep the wild parrots in their native lands where they belong.

(courtesy wingsoghope-nj.com)