Today is World Parrot Day, when we celebrate some of the most incredible birds to grace the skies across our planet. Of this colorful variety of birds, the great green macaw is one of the most radiant, and unfortunately, also one of the most Critically Endangered. Less than 1,000 great green macaws remain across Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama due to habitat loss. WCN’s Conservation Partner, Macaw Recovery Network (MRN), is dedicated to saving great green macaws. Approximately 300 of these macaws live in Costa Rica, where MRN works, and their new campaign seeks to add more macaws to that count.
A wild great green macaw.
Beginning today, MRN is launching a fundraising campaign to reintroduce 27 great green macaw juveniles from their Punta Islita Breeding Center into a brand new release site in northern Costa Rica. This is only the first batch of a larger group of juveniles that they plan to release. Last year, MRN released 14 scarlet macaws from Punta Islita into the wild, and they want to do even more this year with great green macaws. Since these great green macaws are being released in a new area and require monitoring equipment and a field team to ensure they stay protected, MRN must raise roughly $88,000 for this project. Fortunately, they’ve already managed to raise most of that amount, meaning they only need to raise about $27,000 more for this release to be a success.
Great green macaws ready to be released.
From now until June 22, you can donate to MRN to support this major great green macaw reintroduction campaign. You can also sign up for a Zoom session on Thursday, June 13 at 2:00pm (CST) to hear members of the MRN team talk about the upcoming release and answer your questions.
Help return greatness to the forests of Costa Rica and give these magnificent great green macaws the support they need to succeed in the wild.