Nido Adoptivo™ Is Building On Achievements, Moving Forward
The Nido Adoptivo™ annual funding campaign for the nest box project was originated and developed in 2007 by Bird Endowment's founder Laney Rickman in partnership with the Bolivian NGO Asociación Armonía to support the Blue-throated Macaw Conservation Program in the El Beni state of Bolivia, which is the endemic birds' natural range. This effort follows the “Saving the Blue-throated Macaw Ara glaucogularis: A Species Recovery Plan,” developed by Asociación Armonía and Loro Parque Fundación.
Each US$300 donation to sponsor a nest box for a year covers the costs of materials to build and monitor the nest boxes and fieldwork to locate and establish appropriate nesting areas where wild breeding pairs would accept artificial nest boxes.
The Blue-throated Macaw is Critically Endangered, with an estimated 420 - 480 adult birds in the wild. Nido Adoptivo™'s objective is to increase the annual reproductive output of the Blue-throated Macaw wild population through a strategy utilizing nest boxes attached to trees.
Since the program’s inception, an incredible 145 Blue-throated Macaws have fledged from the nest boxes on the Laney Rickman Reserve. For the first time, in 2017, a second-generation chick was raised by parents who both had fledged from these nest boxes. In 2021, 9 breeding birds were confirmed to be ringed individuals, having fledged from these nest boxes in previous years and returning to breed, demonstrating the success of this program and the promise of future population growth.
As part of Armonía’s constant efforts to improve the nest box project, since 2020, camera traps have been utilized to better understand the breeding habits of the Blue-throated Macaw. See videos by Bennett Hennessey using camera trap footage from the 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024 breeding seasons.
The GRAPH above shows the cumulative number of successful Blue-throated Macaw fledges by year. Note the steepening of the curve after the 2017 and 2018 breeding seasons, with numbers of successful fledges increasing more rapidly.
The steepening of the curve is encouraging and indicates that conservation strategies are effectively addressing the threats faced by the Blue-throated Macaw.
After 16 breeding seasons, the project celebrated the significant milestone of the 100th chick fledged in 2021. Extrapolation of the trendline on the graph suggests that the next milestone, the 200th chick, could be reached in 2027 after only an additional 6 years! This trend indicates a significant acceleration in the number of chicks successfully fledging annually, a crucial indicator of population recovery and conservation success.
2024 RESULTS: "The Laney Rickman Reserve produced the most fledged chicks in one year, with 17 chicks leaving 9 nest boxes. Since the nest box program started in 2005, simply increasing the number of breeding options in the wild has resulted in an astounding 145 Blue-throated Macaws entering the wild population."