The thick-billed parrot is the only surviving parrot species native to the United States. These brightly colored birds once roamed across the American Southwest and as far south as Venezuela — but today, the only wild population remaining lives high in the forests of Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains.
For years, conservation organizations like OVIS (
Organización Vida Silvestre) and the
San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance have been working on a multi-faceted conservation project to save these birds. Host
Regina G. Barber and producer
Rachel Carlson dive into the details of that project — and how tiny "bird backpacks" are helping to make it all happen.
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