Amigos de las Aves - Meet the Frisius

The Great Green Macaw are the most majestic, gentle and graceful macaws that the world possesses and are surely exactly as God intended. Take a closer look at these beautiful birds and consider, if at all possible, could man have made anything better? We are indeed in awe of such excellence.

Amigos de las Aves are very privileged to have one of the largest, if not the largest, collection of Great Greens in the world, and as such, are well aware of the responsibility such a collection brings. We believe this to be of global significance as the status of the birds in the wild is critical!

We have good breeding success and have produced over 30 birds over the past years.

Our aim is to release a viable population of these birds into the wild, to provide them with the ideal conditions which will allow them to survive and breed within their own environment.

We are currently perfecting our release program with the help of our Scarlet macaws and will aim to use many of the same procedures with the Great Greens. The critical state of these indigenous birds in Costa Rica will need to be closely evaluated and many issues will need to be addressed. We will work closely with local sources in Costa Rica, (Great Green Society, Minae) to gather as much advice and information as is available. The main consideration is not to encroach upon the wild population, either by utilising their existing habitat or their food source, or by polluting their genetics, which we believe is potentially possible. The Great Green macaws have greatly differing behaviour patterns from the Scarlet macaws, and whilst the Scarlets are much more "feisty" the Great Greens are more "gentle giants" and this behaviour trait must also be taken in great consideration.

Therefore, the Great Green release will noticeably differ from the Scarlet release. We aim to have a much more limited boundary for the birds and would hope to see them mainly utilise the property chosen. We believe we will need to provide extra feed subsistence in addition to the local available foods. A substantial amount of artificial nesting will be provided, and we would aim to use the types of nestboxes we use at Amigos de las Aves as well as having a choice of wooden nesting boxes. One of the prime issues will be the need to physically guard the area.

A lot of thought and planning is currently being given to a project of this magnitude, and we take very seriously the enormity of the task and the responsibility we have to these Great Green macaws. We feel that this particular program is one of a large insurance policy, which will help to ensure the population for the future.

Our Great Greens have been sponsored generously by many people but specifically by Chiqutta Brands. www.chiquitta.com

Study Plan

Biologists Dale Forbes and Fiona Dear have written "The Amigos Study Plan" which will be adhered and added to by Fleur Daugey.

Amigos de las Aves aims to put into practise the "Amigos study plan" that allows for the same information to be gathered from each of our release sites. Eventually allowing us to collect and collate data in exactly the same format, and consequently enable us to produce a series of comparison studies.

The four primary areas of interest for study are:

      Behavioural - pre-release and post-release.
      Nesting
      Food source
      Integration

Some of the questions asked:

How do activity budgets of new macaws change with time following release?
How are the investigative instincts, behaviour and interactions with other macaws influenced by rearing method?
How much interest do wild macaws have in newly released birds?
How long does it take for wild or previously released macaws to investigate new ones in the pre-release aviary?
Are the ranges of wild/previously released macaws affected by the release of new birds?
How long does it take for behavioural patterns of released macaws to stabilise?

Breeding questions will also be raised - depending upon the success of the program - and close monitoring will continue in this area.

The Amigos Plan

"Richard Frisius retired in Costa Rica in 1980 after working with Pan American Airways for 39 years. He always had some type of animal refuge wherever he lived in the world.

He came to Costa Rica with some birds he had acquired in Nigeria and British Guyana, and the collection grew rapidly as people who were leaving Costa Rica and unable to take their birds, or moving from a finca to an apartment, looked for and found a home for their birds.

When it became possible to determine the sex of macaws by sending blood to a laboratory in the United States for DNA analysis, the collection grew even faster as male and female macaws were set up in breeding cages, and subsequently started to lay eggs and hatch chicks.

By 1990 Richard started dreaming of breeding scarlet and great green macaws in order to do something great for them and for Costa Rica. He wanted to return flocks of these magnificent birds to secure areas of the Costa Rican rainforest. In 1992, he started Amigos de las Aves, a non-profit organisation whose main goal was to breed great green and scarlet macaws in order to release them into protected areas of rainforest throughout Costa Rica.

He read of the failed efforts of others but was not deterred. He read, studied, planned and developed with his own way of breeding and raising scarlet and great green macaws. The plan is flexible and continues to evolve as he learns more from what he reads or from our own experiences.

It has become a conservation effort, but an unorthodox one. We do not raise babies by isolating them in a room, covering our heads and feeding them with a hand, covered with something resembling a macaw head. We raise babies in a nursery that is located between the dining room and the kitchen. That way we can always keep an eye on them. We feel that they are intelligent creatures that need love and attention in order to develop properly.

Once they are weaned, they go into the baby flight where they learn to become independent. We have a gardener that does not really like birds and we were annoyed to see him push them off his shoulders when they landed on him during feed-time.However, this turned out to be an invaluable part of the birds' education - the young macaws learned at an early age that not all people are nice.

Richard spends countless hours designing and constructing bird aviaries, feeding stations, drinking fountains and flights where the birds can choose their own mates.

We empathise with our birds and do not treat them like objects to be studied scientifically. Our basic plan for their re-introduction is simple and we do not like to have it tampered with. We have devoted lots of money and time to this project and would like to continue with our plan. We are not closed to new ideas, but only want to implement those that fit in with our basic ideas. We consider our procedures as not just a "conservation program" but an "aviculturalist program".

The birds are studied and records are kept, we want their development documented so that we and others can learn from our successes and our failures.

We like to feed them as much natural food as possible. We do not like pelleted food for our macaws. We think that the change from pelleted food to the natural food they will consume in the wild is too drastic. Part of our release plan is to have the released birds given a small number of sunflower seeds every afternoon between 3:30 and 4:00p.m.

This is to encourage them back to the release site to socialise and to be 'home' where they are relatively safe. We do not want people to feed them commercial dog food. we do not want people to feed them sunflower seeds at 8am or at 2:30pm . We do not want the birds to be handfed while they are in the pre-release flight or after they are released. It has been rather difficult to have our basically simple plan followed. So many people, whether they are volunteers or scientists, think they know better and are determined to change our plans.

We do not want the trees in which our birds' first eggs are laid to be climbed, or their eggs weighed or their babies taken out of the nest and studied. We want the birds to breed and fledge their young on their own without outside interference.

We would like to have browse and fruit on branches put in the pre-release flight. The birds should become accustomed to branches that move before they are released, because the basic perches in their cages at our breeding centre are large and inflexible. In the pre-release flight the birds should be given natural seeds, fruits and nuts found in the local trees. Once they are released, there is to be a feeding station where these same foods are given daily until the birds find food for themselves.

We do not want our pre-release flight to be very large - maybe 15 X 30 feet, about 8 feet high with a 10 X 6 foot cage attached to one end. The attached cage is to house the first birds to be released so that only those birds can fly out when that door is opened.

We do not want our birds to fully develop their flight muscles while in the pre-release flight. We do not want them to be tempted to fly a long way when they are first released. We prefer to release a pair of bonded birds at a time. We feel that a bonded pair has a different attitude for survival than two females or two males or an unbonded pair.

We do not want radio collars or back packs put on our birds. We feel they are a hazard to the birds and might hamper mating.

Recently, we have been taking photographs of our birds and have found that the wing pattern on each of our scarlet macaws is noticeably different. Some siblings have similar patterns but if really studied, the feathers on each bird's wing are quite easy to distinguish. These photographs should make it easier in the future to identify birds once they are flying free.

As there is a nesting cavity shortage in the forest we would like to introduce a variety of artificial nest boxes at each of our release sites to determine which type the birds prefer, in case no natural cavities are available in the future.

We would very much like our project to continue along the guide lines we have laid out once we can no longer supervise. The re-introduction programs are in their initial stages and there is all of Central America to work in after our program has proven to be successful in Costa Rica.".

We feel most of our ideas have merit and we wish people who want things to happen differently would discuss it with us before implementing a change, or else start their own project or find one more to their liking.

Richard Frisius, President
Amigos de las Aves
Rio Segundo de Alajuela
Costa Rica

This is Amigos de las Aves

The Zoocredero is the official and legal license to carry out our work in Costa Rica and it requests that we present documented reports to MINAE on a regular basis, from all areas of our project - the breeding centre, refuge and the release sites. The license is exclusive to Amigos de las Aves, and specific to our mode of work.

The "Five Year Plan"

1: To purchase the Finca - 8 Acres

2: Conservation Programs

Tiskita
To release approx. 40 - 60 birds to establish a viable flock
To provide a biologist/volunteers/biology students to observe and monitor behaviors, and evaluate the success of the birds and produce reports of such.

Curu
To release approx. 30 birds to establish a viable flock.
To provide a biologist/volunteers/biology students to observe and monitor behaviors,
and evaluate the success of the birds and produce reports of such.
To determine whether there are too many disruptive factors in Curu, and neighbouring vacinities and subsequently whether to release further birds.
To search for and establish another working release site for Scarlet Macaws. (in process)
To ascertain the viability of a site - taking all factors into consideration, including food sources, bird safety, nesting opportunities and long term population viability.
To search for a suitable release site for the Great Greens.
To ascertain the viability of a site - taking all factors into condierstion, including food sources, bird safety, nesting opportunities and long term population viability.

To continue with the yellow-naped amazon breeding program (ongoing)
To establish enough pairs to initiate a release project.
To continue with the red lored amazon breeding program.(ongoing)
To establish enough pairs to initiate a release project.

3: Enhance facilities on the Finca:

Additional flights.
Visitor centre
Educational facility (achieved)
General building to facilitate a nursery, food prep. area, storage. (in process)
Quarantine aviaries.
· New nursery & hospital. (in process)
· Office (in process)
· Breeding aviary for Amazons - Yellow Naped and Red Lored - within a reintroduction program

4: Financial stability

5: To enhance the educational program at the Breeding Centre and in the Field. (ongoing)

Allowing a full time Education Officer to work in this area.

Provide funding for educational materials - copies - slides - photos - display boards - posters/fliers - childrens coloring books and fliers. (achieved)

We now have more than 200 breeding birds at our breeding and research centre. It has taken many years to build up breeding stock with enough genetic diversity to bring our program into fruition. It is only now that we are finally beginning to see the benefits of all the hard work.

We have several local workers who tend and care for the birds and the 'finca', and a head zookeeper and two senior zookeepers. We also rely heavily on volunteers, they come from all over the world, some stay at our breeding centre, others work in the field.

Amigos goes from strength to strength - with your help!!!!

Amigos de las Aves and the official Release Programs of Amigos de las Aves in Costa Rica, www.amigosdelasavescostarica.org and www.hatchedtoflyfree.org are not affiliated or associated with any other company, organisation or association, by name or in any other country.