It is Monk Parakeet's nesting season in Urban Foz do Iguaçu (Iguassu Falls Area - Brazil)

The Bird Park has a project to reintroduce the Red-and-green macaw in the Iguaçu National Park. If and when they do fly again over the Iguaçu National Park of Brazil they will certainly fly over the Argentinean Iguazú National Park, over the city of Foz do Iguaçu and neighboring cities in this Westernmost tip of the State of Paraná since parrots, macaws and parakeets have no need to obey human border restrictions.

But even before the red macaws make their come back, we can see something gorgeous happening right now with other psittacids in the region. Parakeets, parrots have already come back to the Skies of  Iguaçu and not only over the Falls.

Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, a city with a population of nearly 300.000 has a sizeable group of Amazon Parrots (Amazona aestiva) that already fly freely and noisily over the city and keep a dormitory-like base near the Gramadão Park, a leisure and events area brought to the population by the Itaipu Binational Electricity Giant. At least eight Amazon Parrots  are part of the group that crosses the city early in the morning and later in the afternoon every single day. Where do they fly to?

When they fly over my house they are generally about halfway between Vila A - where they sleep and the region of farms and second growth forest near the Iguaçu National Park. However, I had the suspicion of having seen two more species of psitacids – as parrots, parakeets and friends are called. I always see them fly over my house and the area where I live but whenever they do, it is sacred, I have no camera.


Once I saw them perched on a cornfield in the urban area lot owned by some neighbor who insists in not leaving behind old ways and the old days when you had to grow your own corn. They were there gracefully perching - if we can call that sideways slanted landing a perching operation, just a few feet away from me but my camera was also kind of perching somewhere at home.

I recently heard the noise of "my parakeets" coming from somewhere not far but hidden by rooftops over which and from a distance I spotted a mbokayá palm tree (Acrocomia totai) also known as macaw palm nor far from the open-air gym for senior citizens where I go to every morning. I went to the palm tree. I could hear the noise but I couldn't see anything. There were many sparrows and doves on the palm tree. I pointed my camera at the sparrows when I suddenly  noticed that there was a kind of hole on the greatly twigs-augmented leaf base of the tree. I pointed at the hole and as I suspected  something mostly green was looking in my direction. It was the parakeet. It did not take long and they began to fly around, in and out of the nests. Some returned carrying sticks for the maintainance of the huge community nest. Then I started to photograph. They were not great pictures because my lens is just a 135 mm and it is not possible to work miracles with it unless my name was Aurea Cunha, Roger Mereiles, Marcos Labanca or Christian Rizzi great Iguassu Falls Area’s photographers. I sent some of the photos I got to biologist Marina Somenzari from the Bird Park. 

"They are the 'caturritas' (Myiopsitta monachus), or monk parakeets famous for building large enough twig nests like this one and they are often inhabited by more than one species at a time. Perhaps that is what you see happening", wrote Marina in a return email to me.

I was happy with Marina's answer and have kept on with my pilgrimage to the palm tree several times a week. I discovered that there are doves with nests on the same tree. I would like to say that the palm tree bocajá (mbocayá in Guarani) is also known as bocaiúva in Brazil and it has been at the top of the list of trees planted in Foz do Iguaçu. If we want to see red macaws back, we'd better start planting the Bocaiúva Palm – Macaw’s palm – again. There are still many bocaiúvas in the city even downtown but there is room for more.
I do not reveal the location of this specific mbocayá palm tree for protection of the parakeets . They are in the Morumbi neighborhood, on a residential street and are well treated by the residents. I send a special compliment to the family who owns the house where the palm tree still stands. Congratulations! It is an exemplary attitude. Some houses down the block, a lady approached me to report or complain about a jaboticabeira (Plinia cauliflor) or  Brazilian grapetree to  where hundreds of bats flock to after at night. "That is a danger," said the lady. "No need to be afraid," I said. If they come to eat jabuticaba fruits, they are fruit-eating bats, they eat fruits and do not feed on blood. "But it's still scary," she insisted.