Who We Are

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Hi! Welcome to the updated Blue Macaws website.

I'm Tony Pittman and I kept Hyacinthine Macaws, the largest of the blue macaws, with Joe Cuddy for nearly 20 years from 1987. In 1991 we made our first trip to Brazil to see these magnificent creatures in the wild and decided to dedicate as much of our free time as possible from very demanding occupations - Joe worked for British Airways and I for the German Chamber of Commerce in London as Deputy Director General and UK representative of Cologne Trade Fairs (KölnMesse) - to the conservation of these magnificent and captivating birds. In doing so we have made many friends in all parts of the world equally determined to do something about parrot conservation as well as encountering a few unsavoury, self-serving individuals.

Over the years I have written articles on parrot conservation for the Parrot Society UK magazine; 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 English language  production of the Lexikon der Papageien ( Lexicon of Parrots ), which quickly became a standard reference work for the parrot family.

This website was first set up in 1998 with the assistance of my eldest son, who is now an eminent marine biologist, 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 To reproduce and publish historical documents, articles and papers in original or summary form on the blue macaws.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 appears in two major languages – English and  German, but also has documents in other languages if they were published first in that language, usually Portuguese and Spanish. 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 wanted to continue to supply a much-needed link between the world of aviculture and field-work for conservation. We believed 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 hoped that by providing information and building understanding we could 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 has become 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.

Nearly 20 years on these objectives are still very valid.

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 2016

Latest News

  • Sunday 3rd March 2024

    In April 1995 I visited Brazil with Thomas Arndt, the then publisher and editor of the German "Papageien" magazine. I had met Thomas at the AFA convention in the USA in 1988. He was presenting there and I assisted him with his use of English. We b ... Read More »

Quotes

 " Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret "

( If you drive out nature with a pitchfork, she will soon find a way back)

Horace (65-8 BC)