- CULLEN HANKS: I think that there's something about parrots
that is special just in their gregarious nature.
They're very interactive in a way that I think people
connect with.
- KARL BERG: Their kind of bodily movements, you know,
the way they kind of turn their head.
Their so interesting to just watch.
- CLIFF SHACKELFORD: You see a group hanging out, having fun,
partying sort-of.
As a human you see a lot of yourself in these parrots.
- NARRATOR: In the very south of Texas a team of wildlife sleuths
has gathered to discuss one of the state's most
mysterious wild birds.
These are the parrot investigators.
- CLIFF: People in Dallas and Houston have no idea there are
parrots down here, and a lot of people don't know that many of
these individuals are wild, and wary, and came here
on their own.
They're native!
A lot of people don't realize that parrots are wild too,
and they do better in the wild.
And we have some wild parrots in Texas,
including the red-crowned parrot.
- NARRATOR: Little is known about wild red-crowns,
but nature tracker Cullen Hanks in on the case.
- ...they line up on the telephone wires.
- I always see them on the houses in those neighborhoods.
- Yeah?
One of the things we do know is that they have adapted to live
in cities in South Texas.
- NARRATOR: Based on tips from eyewitnesses,
Cullen is convinced to set up an old-fashioned stakeout,
teaming up with local biologist Tony Manahan.
- This is right when they showed up last night.
- Every time I've had them, it's been a little darker.
- NARRATOR: They're looking to get a few of the facts straight.
- When we started looking at it, nobody knew
how many parrots there are in South Texas.
But we know the general area where they come,
where they aggregate at the end of the day.
They're out there.
- Over there!
- Yeah!
Over here.
[parrots call]
- NARRATOR: One they spot the gang, the chase is on.
- It's very hard to follow them.
We're on foot as humans, trying to keep up.
They're aloft, flying, and they can cover so much more
ground than we can.
- CULLEN: Wow, look at all those.
It's trick to get... Oh here!
It's seems kind of simple, you know.
There are the parrots.
You count them- one, two, three...
But when you see them, it's just this raucous kind of movement
of activity, and it's really difficult to actually
count them.
It's just impossible when they're flying around
to get a precise number.
Hopefully having multiple observers will help.
We have one ornithologist, but we have so many more
eyes on the ground when we engage many birders
throughout the state.
- NARRATOR: One of those eyes on the ground is Dr. Karl Berg.
He's a bit of a surveillance expert.
- DR. BERG: Most of my interest is concerned with acoustic
communication.
What other pet can insult you in French and Spanish and German?
[chuckles] ...given the right training!
- NARRATOR: He thinks he's found a clue.
By analyzing the vocalizations they make, he's been able
to ID their contact calls, or codenames.
- Parrots arguably have the most sophisticated
imitative vocal abilities of any non-humans,
including all the primates, believe it or not.
- NARRATOR: He's hoping to go deeper, by bugging the homes
of parrot families, like he once did with these
Venezuelan parrots.
[baby parrots chirp]
To plant the mics, he needs a man on the inside.
He turns to research assistant, Caleb Arellano.
- CALEB: I've been wanting to work with parrots for like
the last six years.
Finally being able to do so is like a dream come true.
- NARRATOR: It's here at the Southmost Preserve that Caleb
gets his supplies.
- CALEB: So this is- they have like three different piles
of the PVC pipe on the Preserve around here.
So, what we're doing is we're gonna be using this
irrigation PVC pipe in order to make the nest boxes.
This is a prototype one.
And it's a lot thicker and if you pick it up,
it's a lot heavier.
So, we have the nest liners and we're gonna be cutting out
a section of the wire so that the birds can come in
and they can use the wires to climb down and climb up.
- Red-crowned parrots like to nest in cavities,
tree hollows.
Red-crowned parrot's pretty particular.
They don't like something that's too small or too big,
kind of like Goldilocks-- it has to be just right.
- NARRATOR: The palm trees which once forested this area are
now in short supply.
In places where their turf hasn't already been taken over
by farmland, humans often remove dead trees,
seeing them as a hazard.
Once installed, these nest boxes might give the birds the space
they need to raise their young in a place where we can
watch over them.
Because a lack of homes may not be the only problem:
This may also be a case of kidnapping.
- Unlike a lot of other endangered,
they're not necessarily under pressure from the pet industry.
- NARRATOR: Targeted by poachers looking to make a quick buck,
red-crowned parrots are valuable on the black market.
Often taken right of the nest, baby parrots are sold in
shady deals like this one,
caught on video in an undercover sting operation.
[police sirens]
They are targeted for their speech.
A talking bird is too good to resist
for some people looking for a novelty pet.
And all too often, the chicks end up in the wrong hands.
[chicks chirp]
- They're losing a lot of individuals from people
capturing them and selling them in flea markets
and pet stores.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife is very interested and has recently
nominated it for a candidate for listing for possible threatened
or endangered species status.
[chirping]
- So how do we know this could be on the way to extinction?
Well scientists put that together by looking at
population sizes and how they change over time.
- NARRATOR: And to do that, a search party is being gathered
at the local Audubon Society.
- ...we are really grateful that some of y'all
are participating in the survey here in the Harlingen area.
I think it's really going to help to have multiple observers.
So, what I've been doing is just reaching out to different groups
that might want to participate, some of which were already
tracking parrots on their own, and trying to coordinate efforts
so that we do this all at the same time.
- Okay, so this is the parrot that we are looking for.
This is the red-crowned parrot...
I was asked to help organize all the volunteers.
We had four towns that were cooperating in this study:
in McAllen, Weslaco, Harlingen, and Brownsville.
- We might have a significant chunk of the
global population of red-crowned parrots
right here in South Texas.
We're coordinating this wide effort of citizen scientists
to help us count these parrots.
- NARRATOR: Teams of birders are combing the Valley to
uncover some of the mysteries about this talkative bird.
- DR. BERG: You know, there's no rule that says
they all have to come here.
They could be going somewhere else.
- We all go to specific areas where we expect the birds
to roost to see if they actually show up to where
we expect them to.
By doing it all at the same time, we can validate that
they are individual birds.
- NARRATOR: And with a greater understanding comes a respect
for their wild nature.
- People just think that they belong in a cage,
and that they're a pet.
So this roost survey is going to hopefully answer some questions,
and the big one is "How many do we have?"
[parrots call]
- NARRATOR: These parrot investigators are building
a case to make sure the red-crowned parrot
has a home here in Texas.
This project was funded in part by a grant from the
Wildlife Restoration Program.