Brazil’s red-tailed amazon parrot is a rare success story for reviving a species heading toward extinction, Mongabay Brasil’s Xavier Bartaburu reports.

By the end of the 20th century, the population of the red-tailed amazon (Amazona brasiliensis) had dwindled to fewer than 5,000 individuals in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, one of the most endangered biomes in the world. The birds depend on guanandi trees for their fruit and natural trunk hollows for nesting. However, along with 88% of the Atlantic Forest, many of the trees were cut down and harvested for their sturdy wood.

The red-tailed amazons themselves were, and still are, targeted for the illegal wildlife trade and local consumption. In remote areas such as Rasa Island, off the southern state of Paraná, locals put glue on trees to catch the parrots for sale or to eat, local fisherman Antonio da Luz dos Santos told Bartaburu.

The Society for Wildlife Research and Environmental Education (SPVS) identified Rasa Island as an ideal location for conservation as it hosts both resting and breeding habitat for the birds. However, SPVS was initially not welcome by many residents. “I was one of those against SPVS here on the island. I said that if they came here, I’d shoot,” said Eriel “Nininho” Mendes. His trees full of fruit were being eaten by the parrots, and many people didn’t want to be barred from hunting.

Nonetheless, SPVS began conservation efforts on the island, employing local people to address the limited number of guanandi by building artificial nests — wooden boxes placed in the tree canopy, Bartaburu reported. Locals like Antonio were tapped to help build the nests.

“Back then, people said it wouldn’t work. But one day, I went into the forest, and there was a chick inside the box,” said Antonio, who now works with SPVS staff.

They installed 15 nests in 2003, and the boxes were 100% occupied before the breeding season began, said SPVS wildlife project coordinator Elenise Sipinski. Because the artificial nests were custom-made for the birds, the entrance holes keep predators out. “We have camera trap footage showing a hawk trying to get into the nest, but it couldn’t,” Sipinski told Bartaburu. More than 100 nests were installed across the island, and several more in nearby areas.

Nininho, who first threatened to shoot SPVS workers, now plants fruit trees for the birds, which have attracted tourists who stay in his guesthouse. “Tourists come, spend the day here, eat our food, walk around the island, go in the mud to dig oysters with me,” he said. “Parrots are now a profit for me.”

Initially listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, the parrots’ conservation status has improved to “near threatened” as the population has increased to some 9,000 individuals. It’s the only Brazilian species that’s increasing in population, Bartaburu reported.

Read the full report here.

Banner image of a red-tailed amazon in an artificial PVC nest installed by SPVS. Image courtesy of Zig Koch/SPVS.