With Taylor Carpenter
Blue and gold macaws are not native to Caracas. But over the past two decades their numbers in Venezuela's capital have skyrocketed, with hundreds of these birds now flying freely across the city, and dazzling locals with their colorful feathers and peculiar calls.
The birds have become a symbol of Caracas and formed a special bond with some people, who leave food for them in their balconies or gardens. But this unique relationship between humans and exotic birds is now under threat as city authorities cut down the palm trees that the macaws depend on to raise their offspring.
Maria Lourdes Gonzalez, a biologist who studies the macaws says that in the following years, the city's population of blue and gold macaws could plummet. "If they don't find a place where they can breed, there will be no new generation of macaws" she said at her office in Caracas' Simon Bolivar University.
Gonzalez explained that the macaws only nest in a palm tree known as the chaguaramo, or the royal palm. And they only use chaguaramos with no leaves whose trunks are decaying and have been partially hollowed out by insects.
Officials are taking these old palm trees down in several parks and public spaces as they try to beautify the city ,and prevent rotting tree trunks from falling on people. It's a policy that makes sense from the perspective of a city planner, Gonzalez explained, but one that threatens the macaws.
"These are not birds that make nests out of branches or twigs," Gonzalez said. "They occupy holes inside old tree trunks, and in Caracas, they only use the chaguaramo trees."
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