The World Parrot Trust always has an annual appeal over December & January in which certain wild parrots in need are highlighted so you can help save them. This year it’s the Amazon Parrots which are being highlighted as they are major targets for wildlife poachers and have suffered greatly from habitat loss.
Although donations are being doubled until the end of January, I do want to point out to Americans that if you donate before 31 Dec, you will get a receipt for your 2016 tax return.
Tis the season for family travel with school out and many businesses shut down over the Christmas & New Year’s holidays. Hawaii is one of the most popular destinations with the island of Maui a top favourite. We were here in Sept 2013 using Ultimate Reward points transferred to Hyatt to stay at the Hyatt Regency Maui. This hotel, like many others in tropical locations has several captive parrots in cages and on stands, a few penguins and some flamingoes. While this is no bona-fide eco-tourism experience, what you can do is use the opportunity to educate your children about the native habitat of the birds and get them interested in future travel where they can see the birds in the wild.
As you wander through the lobby to the swimming pool, you will see these birds. If you don’t have pet parrots, this may be the first time for your children to see live parrots and penguins up close. The Hyatt Regency has provided signs that give more information about the birds and where they come from. This is a good chance to show your children how far away the bird’s native land is and show them what the bird’s habitat really looks like. Here on MTTW, I have bird profiles for many parrot species (adding new ones all the time) and many other birds in which I give links to other websites with scientific information and videos of the bird in the wild such as the African Grey profile.
Even better if they do a school science project about wild birds, they could get their whole class interested in eco-tourism!
Depending on the age of your children, a trip to Africa or South America may be a few years away but you can get them excited about the possibility and maybe get them to start saving up for such a trip!
Most people are familiar with the annual Chase Freedom category bonuses and that every quarter you get a 5% bonus in specific categories but you must activate the deal by 14 Dec. What you may not know is that until 31 Dec, you will get 10% bonus (if you activated already) in the form of 10 Ultimate Rewards points per $ if you pay for your Amazon.com purchases with your Chase Freedom card! If you use the link below to start your purchase I get a small commission for which I thank you. There will be plenty of sales on so it’s a perfect chance to get what you didn’t get for Christmas!
MTTW Link
And you can start making plans to maximize the 2016 bonus categories!
Personally, I would do anything to avoid traveling during the holiday season. It’s so much more stressful with all the crowds and potential weather delays in the northern hemisphere. But if you MUST travel, here’s a nice little slideshow I found. Happy Holidays!
A few months ago, I did a series targeted to the budget birder on birding from a cruise ship and how to put together your own birding cruise. Although this way does save you money and you can choose any ship you prefer, there is also an option for those who prefer an organized group birding cruise. Carefree Birding offers a variety of itineraries mostly around the Caribbean. You basically book the cruise component through their travel agency and then book a birding package for those who wish to go on the birding shore excursions (non-birding family members don’t have to book the excursions). This offers a nice option if you are short of time to do your own legwork in booking private birding shore excursions such as I did. Since you have to use their travel agency you do lose out on airline miles for booking through a frequent flyer mile portal such as United Cruises or bargaining for the cruise fare on Cruise Compete, but for many people time = money so they prefer to have everything organized for them.
James Currie of Birding Adventures did a cruise on the Celebrity Equinox (ship details here) and you can see what a typical birding cruise is like on his videos.
Costa Rica, Belize & Cozumel – it was nice to see their visit to Crooked Tree in Belize. I did this as a land trip and had a different experience because I was targeting parrots and didn’t do the water excursion.
Panama, Grand Cayman & Cartegena, Colombia – I wish I had known about the botanical gardens in Grand Cayman as we went to a different place back in 2008. I like their option better!
This stunning documentary is a Japanese production filmed by Tadashi Shimada in central Papua New Guinea. He has amazing footage of Bird of Paradise species never seen before and completely different to the David Attenborough documentary. I’m tempted to put PNG on my bucket list (actually it already is) but the footage of the terrain at around 37:00 looks even more difficult than the Arfak Mountains.
PNG is an easy flight from Brisbane, getting there would be no problem with Qantas flights via Cairns to POM or Virgin Australia from Brisbane. But PNG is one of the most expensive countries to bird in. There are safety issues and this is one place I would rather be with a group and group tours are not cheap! So until I win the lottery, videos like this are as close as I may ever get to the stunning Ribbon-tailed Astrapia & Blue Bird of Paradise.
The video is hosted on YouTube but embedding is disabled so click here to see it.
I’ve seen eco-tourism in action, successfully acting as a deterrent to poaching wild birds in places like Rasa Island in the Philippines and West Papua, Indonesia. Bonobo in Congo’s blog reports heart-breaking statistics on the poaching of wild African Grey Parrots in Lomami Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly known as Zaire).
While the park is remote, it’s not impossible to get there. You can get to Kinshasa with Star Alliance programs on Ethiopian and South African Airways or Skyteam programs on Air France and Kenya Airways. Then you need a domestic flight on CAA to Kindu.
It won’t be easy as DRC doesn’t have the greatest infrastructure – yet. But it could be improved. I did find one birder’s report though he didn’t go to Lomami, he did find other places in Congo – 12 years ago! If tourists felt safe traveling there, there would be more legitimate jobs and poachers could be trained as guides, lodge staff, craft-makers, etc.
So much potential!
With Christmas in 5 days I know everyone is flat out but take a couple minutes to enjoy these beautiful photos taken on a safari in Tanzania – then plan one for yourself!
The United States and Cuba have agreed to restore scheduled commercial airline service for the first time in more than five decades in a deal allowing 110 round-trip flights a day between the former Cold War foes. More details in this article.
This is great news to anyone who wants to go birding in Cuba and hopefully see Cuban Amazon parrots! Tourism is still not a legitimate reason for Americans to visit Cuba but “educational tours” are and I would consider birding as educational.
In the meanwhile, you can still see their cousins – Cayman Amazon Parrots in nearby Grand Cayman.
