Sunday, April 5, 2026
Two Reds at the Cerro Aviaries
By Alejandro Rigatuso, Fundador y Director de Fundación Loros
This afternoon Carlos Mata looked up and found them there: two wild scarlet macaws, blazing in full red, circling the aviary zone at the Cerro where the birds of the Ara program make their home. They hadn't come through in passing. They were close — right at that place where the jungle and the aviaries touch.
No one knows for certain what drew them. Perhaps the call of their kin held in captivity, perhaps the memory of the territory itself. What was captured on video is this: two free *Ara macao* chose that corner of the 520 hectares to land today, April 5th, 2026. And that, on the long road of a reintroduction program, is no small thing.
About the author
Alejandro Rigatuso · Fundador y Director de Fundación Loros
Alejandro Rigatuso arrived at Fundación Loros after years as Vice President of Growth Marketing at Toptal, bringing with him an unconventional perspective: he knows an animal is well by its eyes, "bright, wide open." Lorenzo, the first parrot released, recaptured several times and always set free to fly again, marked him forever. At dusk, around five-thirty, you'll find him at the Mirador de las Ciénagas or wandering around Cerro El Peligro, envisioning observation towers and hundreds of native parrots soaring over a reserve that an entire community calls their own.