Abstract
Dear Mr. Dingle,
by Sheldon Dingle
Norco, California
I would like to express my thanks for
the article on and the support of the
thick-billed parrot project in Arizona.
It's a joy to see aviculture and conservation
working together for the preservation
of a species. I would also like to
express the feelings of a breeder of
macaws, hybrid and non-hybrid in
response to the letters in the Feb/Mar
issue of Watchbird.
The breeding of any macaw, hybrid
or not, helps conservation by offering a
bird to the pet market that wasn't taken
from its native habitat. Thousands of
macaws have been brought from the
wild and in the types like militarys, blue
and golds, green winged and scarlets
there is a large supply of adult stock.
Yet, importation of wild birds continues
to diminish wild populations. Instead of
paying more for domestic stock, some
pet stores still sell wild-caught birds.