Future in Flight: Protecting Yellow-eared Parrots

Fundación ProAves de Colombia

Protecting Colombia's Yellow-eared Parrots and Their Andean Forest Home

The future of the Yellow-eared Parrot depends on protecting the forests it calls home. Once believed extinct, this remarkable species has become a powerful symbol of how dedicated conservation efforts can give threatened wildlife a second chance. However, its recovery remains fragile, with deforestation, agricultural expansion, and habitat fragmentation continuing to threaten its survival.

Through Fundación ProAves de Colombia, we are working to protect the cloud forests and wax palms essential to the Yellow-eared Parrot's survival. These high-altitude ecosystems provide vital nesting and feeding habitat, while also supporting an extraordinary diversity of other threatened and endemic species.

Our Conservation Priorities

Our project takes an integrated approach to protecting the Yellow-eared Parrot and its habitat:

• Habitat protection and restoration: Safeguarding important forest areas and restoring degraded habitats with native trees, including the wax palms on which the parrots depend.
• Community participation: Supporting local communities in becoming active partners in conservation through environmental education and community-led stewardship.
• Nest protection and monitoring: Strengthening efforts to monitor nesting sites, reduce disturbance, and prevent poaching.
• Ecological connectivity: Restoring forest corridors to improve connectivity between fragmented habitats and support the long-term resilience of Andean ecosystems.

Why Your Support Matters

Protecting the Yellow-eared Parrot means protecting much more than a single species. The Andean cloud forests within its range provide habitat for numerous birds, mammals, amphibians, and plants, many of which are threatened or found nowhere else on Earth.

The wax palm also holds deep cultural significance in Colombia. Conserving the landscapes that sustain these palms helps preserve both the country's natural heritage and the ecological processes on which local communities depend.

Every contribution can help advance this work. Donations can support native tree planting, provide equipment for community conservation guardians, strengthen environmental education, and contribute to securing critical habitat.

Help Us Keep the Yellow-eared Parrot Flying

Our fundraising goal is US$150,000, which will support the long-term protection and restoration of critical habitat for the Yellow-eared Parrot.

With your support, Fundación ProAves can continue working toward a future in which these magnificent parrots thrive in healthy, connected Andean forests, alongside the many other species that depend on them.

Together, we can turn a fragile recovery into a lasting conservation success. Thank you for standing with Colombia's wildlife and the communities working to protect it.

Links:

• Our main website
• https://proaves.org/blog/the-yellow-eared-parrot-in-national-geographic/