Watching Birds Disappear

In the year 2000, Spix’s macaws vanished from northeast Brazil. The large, powderblue birds’ disappearance was no fluke. Farmers and timber cutters cleared their wooded river forest habitat. Bird traders bagged the birds, and hunters shot them. Today, only 40–60 Spix’s macaws still live in aviaries, where most of them were born. None remain in riverside woodlands where the birds were “discovered” just 183 years ago. ¹