JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In Venezuela's capital, bright flocks of macaws are part of daily life, living side by side with residents. Now that fragile coexistence is under threat, as Manuel Rueda reports from Caracas.
(SOUNDBITE OF MACAWS SQUAWKING)
MANUEL RUEDA: Every day as the sun is coming down, Karem Guevara gets some colorful visitors.
KAREM GUEVARA: Hello (speaking Spanish).
RUEDA: About a dozen blue and gold macaws fly up to her apartment. They perch on her windowsill and stretch out their necks as Guevara feeds them sunflower seeds and sliced bananas.
GUEVARA: (Speaking Spanish).
RUEDA: "They're like part of my family," she says, "and when they bring their chicks over, it fills my heart with joy."
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RUEDA: Hundreds of macaws fly freely around Caracas, one of the few cities in the world where these colorful birds are part of the landscape. These urban macaws have become accustomed to people, and they formed a special bond with the city's residents.
CRISTINA OCHOA: Hola.
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RUEDA: Cristina Ochoa (ph), a retired teacher, has built a wooden perch for the macaws in her garden. Every morning before 8 a.m., several macaws fly down to her backyard, where she feeds them fruits and seeds.
OCHOA: (Speaking Spanish).
RUEDA: "When I'm with them, I'm in a good zone," she says, "I forget my problems."
(SOUNDBITE OF MACAW SQUAWKING)
RUEDA: The birds measure about 35 inches and nest in rotting palm trees hollowed out by insects. But increasingly, city officials are cutting down these trees, citing safety concerns and urban aesthetics. Biologist Maria Lourdes Gonzalez warns that in the coming years, the macaw population could significantly decline.
MARIA LOURDES GONZALEZ: If they don't find a way - a place where they can breed, there's no new generation of macaws for the city.
RUEDA: But Gonzalez says that might not be bad for the environment. After all, the macaws aren't native to Caracas.
GONZALEZ: Well, they are, you know, from the south of Venezuela, mainly the Amazonian area.
RUEDA: Brought to the city as pets decades ago, many were eventually released by their owners.
GONZALEZ: Macaws are terrible pets. They are noisy - a lot of noise. And inside a house is very hard to live with a animal who is always screaming, no?
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RUEDA: Gonzalez says it was easy for the birds to survive here and reproduce.
GONZALEZ: Caracas is a green city. More than 30% of the city are areas with trees - with flowers, with seeds, with fruits.
RUEDA: A decade ago, Gonzalez counted roughly 400 blue and gold macaws in the city. Now she wants to update that census to understand how the removal of old palm trees is affecting the population.
GONZALEZ: I expect the population decrease or expand in the area, searching for new places where they can breed.
RUEDA: Without funding from her university or the government, she'll have to take a different approach this time by recruiting volunteers to count macaws across the city.
(SOUNDBITE OF MACAW SQUAWKING)
RUEDA: Karem Guevara says that macaws make people happy as they fly over traffic jams or perch on top of the city's buildings. She would be sad to see their population fall.
GUEVARA: (Speaking Spanish).
RUEDA: "They're a symbol of the city now," she says, "and every day, there are more of us who want to feed them and take care of them."
For NPR News, I'm Manuel Rueda in Caracas.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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