They have now been confirmed as male and will probably go to a captive breeding programme

It was confirmed to me today that the Spix's Macaw bred earlier this year at Loro Parque is in fact a female and not a male as suggested in my report of 23rd June.

The three Lear's Macaws confiscated in the Czech republic - reported by me on June 15th below - have now been confirmed as male and according to Pavla Rihova of the Czech Environment Inspection Agency, will probably go to a captive breeding programme. The only one I am aware of in Europe is at Loro Parque. The authorities in the Czech Republic appear to have had the group of five parrot breeders responsible under some form of surveillance for a number of years. The breeders apparently used a code to denote species when e-mailing each other based on the page number in an atlas of parrots.