FEATURE
Asociación Armonía nest box program: Tjalle Boorsma
Long-term results Armonía’s nest box program
Armonía’s nest box program started 14 years ago through the support from Loro Parque Fundación and the Bird Endowment with the Nidos Adiptivos Program. In 2005 we placed 20 nest boxes which resulted in a 100% occupancy by a number of bird species including 1 Blue-throated Macaw pair. This clearly indicated limited natural cavity availability as well as the nest boxes being an attractive breeding environment. Since then a total of 55 nest boxes have been used by the Blue-throats. A total of 146 eggs were produced, 99 chicks hatched of which 81 Blue-throated Macaws successfully fledged into the wild (fig. 8). Our 14-year nest box program showed on average a 31% egg loss (infertile eggs,
damaged eggs or predated eggs) and an 11% mortality rate of hatched chicks. Chicks that died in the nest boxes were the smallest chicks often hatched long after the oldest individuals. Little information is available on the survival rate of the fledged birds, but the return of ringed individuals during the 2017- 2018 and the 2018-2019 breeding season is a promising indicator demonstrating the success of this program. Over time, Armonía created a nest box that stopped competition for breeding cavities between the common and abundant Blue- and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) and the endemic Blue-throated Macaw. At the start of the program entrance holes measured 12 by 25 cm. In 2013 we changed the entrance hole to 10 by 10 cm. Before 2013 between 15 to 27 nest boxes were occupied by Blue-and- yellows, while after 2013 we reduced it to a maximum occupancy of 3 nest boxes (including years with 0 nest box usage) (Fig. 9).
BIRD SCENE 23
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