When thinking of a parrot, probably the last thing you'd expect
is to see it sitting in the snowy trees of wintry Germany.
But these pictures are not fake.
These yellow-headed amazon parrots have actually settled
in one of Germany's biggest cities.
As we've already explored in previous videos, parrots are not only magnificent
and beautiful creatures, but also amazingly adaptable.
South American parrots can be found in Miami or African parrots
in Phoenix, Arizona.
But Tropical South in Florida, the hot desert of Arizona
and temperate Germany - those are three completely different pairs of shoes.
How could a species that originates in the Amazon managed to survive
in the Central European climate?
How did it even get there in the first place?
And why might these animals play a vital role for the survival of their kin?
That's what we here to find out.
As already mentioned,
many parrot species are quite adaptable to new environments.
Monk parakeets, for example, can build pretty much anywhere.
They can construct sophisticated nest structures in any urban environment
like these populations in Miami and Barcelona.
But other city parrots take a different approach.
They find temporary squats to nest in, like the rosy faced love birds in Phoenix
who take over the spiky homes of birds in local cacti,
or our German yellow-headed Amazon parrots.
They live in Stuttgart, one of Germany's major cities.
Here, the Schlossgarten Park runs through the heart of the town.
At nesting season in spring,
the city's 40 centimeters tall, yellow-headed Amazon Parrots
are busy looking for and working on large nest holes.
They're usually found along the avenue of plain trees.
But how did they actually get here?
Just like in other urban areas, far away from the natural habitat, Germany's
parrots are most likely descended from private ownership.
Birds, once kept by people who were keen on
having exotic pets at home, but obviously weren't able to contain them there.
Back to a plain tree nests.
There's new life inside.
Yellow-headed Amazons usually lay up to three eggs.
In this nest just one of them has hatched.
These parrots have low reproductive success in the wild,
so every chick counts.
The female has spent most of the last month inside the dark nest cavity,
Blind and fatherless, her chick needs her there to keep it warm.
The fathers job is to find food.
For the first two weeks, only the mother will feed the chick.
She relies on her partner to bring back supplies
In their native habitat,
only one in four yellow-headed Amazon pairs breed successfully,
but in Germany, a lack of poachers and predators gives the adults
a chance to focus more on their parenting skills.
But another issue is a challenge for them: the climate.
In Stuttgart winters can get really cold
with freezing temperatures several degrees below zero
At this time of year,
most people are snug in their homes, but above the empty streets,
the colorful parrots help the trees look like decorated for Christmas.
Wild baubles from the Amazon.
In winter, the trees offer a set menu of twigs and buds
with just snow to wash it all down.
About 50 feral Amazon parrots live in the Stuttgart area.
To survive here they've had to learn all about city life, including the daily commute.
During the winter season,
you won't find them in the city's main park.
Each night, Stuttgart's parrots gather together on the same central street.
The traffic and tall buildings here keep the spot a few important degrees
warmer than their usual nesting places in Schlossgarten.
They've always managed to find this perfect spot in the city center.
Their truly wild cousins are in decline. Unfortunately.
In the 1970s and eighties, yellow-headed Amazon populations fell by 90%.
It was labeled the most dramatic population decline
of any bird in the Americas. As their numbers in the wild keep falling,
Germany's stable population offers hope.
After all, resilient, adaptable parrots have shown us
they can survive in places we wouldn't think possible.
These birds don't know it, but they could one day
be the last of their kind and save their species.
They could be moved to cities in their natural
range where, like here, they might prosper.
Or they could
perhaps help provide the genetic diversity needed to restock the wild.
Like at this breeding center on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula,
where it's up to their human caretakers
to teach macaws all about parrot life.
In Mexico, Scarlet macaws have vanished
98% of their natural range.
And these birds are all part of a reintroduction effort.
Centers like this one exist right across their natural habitat in the Americas.
But there's a long way to go.
And with wild numbers this low a bit of genetic diversity
will be essential if we want to reestablish their old population range.
As we already know,
Stuttgart's Amazon parrots are not the only ones.
Parrots are appearing in cities all over the world
and they're doing it in big numbers.
More than 70,000 parrots live wild in our cities. In urban California alone,
no fewer than 13 species have marked a turf.
So along with California, Arizona
and Florida, Germany might one day be the place that conservationists
eyes are glued on in order to save the species.
Hey, I hope you enjoyed this one!
Don’t miss the rest of our “Wild to Know” series.
There are so many cool videos in there! See you next time.