The Great Green Macaw, Ara ambiguus, is one of the largest parrot species in the world. Yet its populations are rapidly shrinking due to the combined pressures of habitat loss, hunting, and the theft of nestlings for the domestic pet trade. Because they tend to be long-lived (60 - 80 years!), they reproduce slowly and, thus, population declines are difficult to reverse.

Their nests are particularly fragile and represent a significant obstacle to their population recovery. The large trees that they choose for nesting tend to be old and mostly dead, thus they frequently fall naturally due to storms or are cut down by humans.

While pursing other projects, we learned that a few pairs of Great Green Macaws were present near the Emberá village of La Marea in Panama's Darién province. Most of the trees they nested in had already fallen, however. This project aims to provide man-made nests for these birds to use to support local breeding populations. We are also training members of the local indigenous community to monitor and protect these nests.