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Fundación Loros

Wild foods of the parrots

What released parrots choose to eat when they return to the forest. A field record by Fundación Loros and the visitors who come to the reserve.

One question decides everything else in a rehabilitation process: when the parrot returns to the forest, what will it eat? If we cannot answer that with specific trees and specific seasons, we are not releasing — we are abandoning.

So we document on video what released parrots choose to eat in the tropical dry forest of Villanueva. Every tree identified enters the forest nursery's list: we propagate it, give it to neighbors and plant it in the reserve. Field observation → nursery → planting: that is the loop.

Many of these videos were recorded by visitors birdwatching and volunteers — not just the team. Citizen science is what lets us multiply the monitoring without militarizing the forest. Access is open: the full series lives in a public YouTube playlist.

The aviary trains the body; the forest teaches the rest.

Who documents

Three sources recording the same scene

Wild-diet monitoring is not an isolated technical task: it is a network. When a flock returns to a tree, someone — team, visitor or neighbor — records it.

  1. Field team

    The people in the reserve every day: they identify new behaviors, calibrate the cameras and maintain the archive.

  2. Regenerative tourism

    Visitors who come to birdwatch. Their time, their camera and their attention double the monitoring coverage.

  3. Citizen science

    Neighbors and volunteers who report trees where they saw parrots. The open playlist is the shared repository.

The video series

Each clip documents a real scene: a specific tree, a season, a flock. The subject is always the Yellow-crowned Amazon (Amazona ochrocephala) — the species with the most released individuals in our sanctuary. The playlist keeps growing with every new observation.

Red mombin · Spondias purpurea

A Yellow-crowned Amazon (Amazona ochrocephala) feeds on red mombin (Spondias purpurea), one of the most beloved trees of the tropical dry forest. It propagates easily from cuttings and, within a few years, becomes a natural feeder for the parrots we release.

Papaya · Carica papaya

Yellow-crowned Amazons feed on ripe papaya (Carica papaya). It grows in under a year, produces fruit quickly, and provides vitamin A, vitamin C and water exactly when the dry forest is at its harshest. It is one of the first species we plant to accelerate the food calendar.

Earpod tree (guanacaste) · Enterolobium cyclocarpum

A Yellow-crowned Amazon opens an ear-shaped pod of the earpod tree (Enterolobium cyclocarpum), a keystone species of the tropical dry forest. Its sugar-rich pod pulp feeds both wildlife and rural communities, who use it in traditional sweets.
Scene recorded by Maicol González Guzmán during a visit to the sanctuary.

Siam cassia · Senna siamea

Yellow-crowned Amazons forage on the yellow flowers of Siam cassia (Senna siamea), an introduced tree from Asia widely used in rural living fences. Though non-native, in bloom parrots take advantage of it — a reminder that in fragmented landscapes introduced species can still play a role.

Spanish lime (mamoncillo) · Melicoccus bijugatus

Two Yellow-crowned Amazons share a mamoncillo (Melicoccus bijugatus). The behavior is not just about diet: sharing food is part of psittacine social bonding. When a rehabilitated parrot does this in the wild, we know the group has come together.

Red mombin — leaves · Spondias purpurea

First time we document Yellow-crowned Amazons eating young leaves of red mombin (Spondias purpurea). We had seen them on the fruit, but the leaves in the dry season provide moisture and nutrients — a behavior we had not seen in captivity.

Tamarind · Tamarindus indica

Yellow-crowned Amazons feed on tamarind pods (Tamarindus indica), a non-native but very common tree in towns and farms across Colombia's Caribbean. The pod's sweet-tangy pulp is rich in sugars and minerals — an opportunistic food the parrots take advantage of.

Mother of cocoa · Gliricidia sepium

Yellow-crowned Amazons extract seeds from the pods of mother of cocoa (Gliricidia sepium), a nitrogen-fixing tree used for living fences and cattle shade. We knew it for its agro-ecological value; now we document it is also a wild food for the parrots.

Bay cedar (guásimo) · Guazuma ulmifolia

Yellow-crowned Amazons feed on young leaves and seeds of bay cedar (Guazuma ulmifolia), a native tree common in Caribbean cattle pastures. Its presence in ranching landscapes makes it a bridge between wildlife and rural productive systems.

Corozo machín · Achatocarpus nigricans

Two Yellow-crowned Amazons enjoy the small berries of corozo machín (Achatocarpus nigricans), a native shrub of the dry forest that almost no one recognizes. That the parrots return to it in the wild reminds us the list of species useful to wildlife is longer than the list we cultivate.

Yellow silk-cotton · Cochlospermum vitifolium

A Yellow-crowned Amazon feeds on the golden flowers of yellow silk-cotton (Cochlospermum vitifolium), a native species that in the heart of the dry season blooms and becomes critical: it provides nectar and water exactly when the forest looks parched. One of the images that show the dry forest is not just dry.

What we learned

Ten trees documented on video. Five were part of the aviary diet; the other five the birds discovered on their own. All of them now enter the picker as field evidence.

TreeScientific nameIn the aviary?In the picker before?
Red mombinSpondias purpureaYesNo
PapayaCarica papayaYesNo
Earpod treeEnterolobium cyclocarpumNoYes (other species)
Siam cassiaSenna siameaNoNo
Spanish limeMelicoccus bijugatusYesNo
TamarindTamarindus indicaYesNo
Mother of cocoaGliricidia sepiumPartialNo
Bay cedarGuazuma ulmifoliaYesYes (other species)
Corozo machínAchatocarpus nigricansNoNo
Yellow silk-cottonCochlospermum vitifoliumNoNo

In the aviary? = whether the species was part of the captive diet before release. In the picker before? = whether the tree was in the fauna ↔ tree picker at the nursery before this documentation.

Cross diet with nursery

Fauna ↔ tree picker

Pick a fauna species and see which trees serve it. Records marked <strong>medium</strong> (●●) come from field evidence at Los Loros — the videos above.

Flagship species

Yellow-crowned parrot

Amazona ochrocephala

Plant for this species (14)

  • Nesting●●P1

    Kapok tree (Ceiba pentandra)

    Cavity in emergent tree

  • Food●●P2

    Bay cedar (Guazuma ulmifolia)

    Young leaves and seeds

    Field-documented at Los Loros: native, common in cattle pastures; a bridge between wildlife and ranching.

  • Food●●P3

    Corozo machín (Achatocarpus nigricans)

    Small berries

    Field-documented at Los Loros: understudied native shrub; seasonal berries.

  • Food●●P2

    Earpod tree / Guanacaste (Enterolobium cyclocarpum)

    Pods (ear-shaped)

    Field-documented at Los Loros: keystone tree of the dry forest; pod pulp rich in sugars.

  • Food●●P2

    Mamoncillo / Spanish lime (Melicoccus bijugatus)

    Pulpy fruits

    Field-documented at Los Loros: parrots share fruits as a social-bonding behavior.

  • Food●●P2

    Mother of cocoa (Gliricidia sepium)

    Seed pods

    Field-documented at Los Loros: nitrogen-fixing tree common in living fences.

  • Food●●P2

    Papaya (Carica papaya)

    Ripe fruit

    Field-documented at Los Loros: fast-growing species, hydrating fruit in the dry season.

  • Food●●P2

    Red mombin (Spondias purpurea)

    Fruits and tender leaves

    Field-documented at Los Loros: fruits frequently eaten and, for the first time, young leaves.

  • Food●●P3

    Siam cassia (Senna siamea)

    Yellow flowers

    Field-documented at Los Loros: introduced species; parrots forage on its flowers during bloom.

  • Food●●P3

    Tamarind (Tamarindus indica)

    Pods (pulp)

    Field-documented at Los Loros: widely planted non-native; sweet-tangy pods.

  • Food●●P1

    Wild cashew (Anacardium excelsum)

    Fruits and seeds

  • Food●●P1

    Wine palm (Attalea butyracea)

    Fruits

  • Food●●P1

    Yellow mombin (Spondias mombin)

    Fruits

  • Food●●P2

    Yellow silk-cotton (Cochlospermum vitifolium)

    Flowers

    Field-documented at Los Loros: foraging on flowers during the dry season.

Consensus ●●● (strong) = ≥2 independent scientific sources; ●● (medium) = 1–2 sources or direct field evidence at Los Loros. The line is transparent so each visitor decides how much weight to give it.

Purple flowers of roble (Tabebuia rosea) in full bloom at the Los Loros forest nursery

From video to nursery

The trees you see them eat — we grow them

Every tree the picker recommends, we propagate at the forest nursery and give it to neighbors and partners. When you come to plant, donate a tree or volunteer, you leave behind one of the trees you saw being eaten above.

Visit the nursery

How to take part

Documenting wild diet is not a closed technical task. Anyone who walks the reserve with a camera — neighbor, volunteer, visitor — can add an observation. Three paths:

  • Birdwatching at the reserve — the videos you record during a guided visit can enter the corpus if the subject is clearly identified. Plan a visit through How to get here.
  • Field volunteering — planting and monitoring days at the reserve. Dates and signup live on How to help.
  • Donate a tree or a nest — sustains the nursery and the monitoring operation. Every donated tree may be one of those in the picker.

Come document the next scene

The tree that is not yet on the list probably already has parrots on it. Someone just has to record it.

Plan a visitSee the full playlist