Over the years I have written articles on parrot conservation for Cage & Aviary Birds, a British weekly newspaper for aviculturists with a circulation in excess of 30,000, Parrots (formerly Just Parrots), a popular British monthly also available in North America, afa Watchbird in the USA and, of course, Papageien and WP - Wellensittiche und Papageien, both highly regarded German journals published by Thomas Arndt.
I have known Thomas since 1988 when we met at the afa convention in Tampa. We worked together closely over the next ten years, culminating in the production of the Lexicon of Parrots, which has quickly become the standard reference work for the parrot family.
This website has been set up to achieve several objectives:-
1. To gather and disseminate information from all over the world about the blue macaws - the Hyacinthine Macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus), the highly endangered Lear's Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari), the sadly extinct Glaucous Macaw (Anodorhynchus glaucus) and the extremely rare Spix's Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii).
2. To publish in summary form the important research work on the Hyacinthine Macaw by Neiva Maria Robaldo Guedes, the dedicated Brazilian biologist, who has been working in the Pantanal, the last stronghold of the Hyacinthine Macaw, since 1991.
3. To reproduce and publish historical documents, articles and papers in original or summary form on the blue macaws. The website is intended to appear in four major world languages - English, German, Portuguese and Spanish - although this will involve considerable work. The reason is that we have discovered that much vital as well as interesting work is published in one language and never or little known to speakers and readers of other languages.
4. As well as providing a bridge between language groups, we also want to supply a much-needed link between the world of aviculture and field-work for conservation. We believe that effective conservation can only be achieved by understanding each other and working closely towards one objective. We have discovered that both sides have much to contribute to each other.
5. We hope that by providing information and building understanding that we can contribute even in a very small way to the development and implementation of workable strategies to protect and save parrot species from extinction. The world is becoming increasingly urbanised with most of the people of the planet living in cities. This causes a certain alienation from nature and creates a certain life-style based on consumerism. The people left on the land understandably want to share in this and will devote considerable effort, often to the detriment of their immediate environment, to enjoy the perceived pleasures of consumerism. Conservation cannot afford to overlook or deny this aspect.
We hope you enjoy using this website, sharing our experiences by reading the texts and viewing the images. We also hope you use the links we have created to other websites. Please let us know your views and opinions via e-mail.
Happy viewing!!
Tony Pittman
January 1998
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