Thanks to advancements in technology such as improved transportation, communications, and internet trade, the world feels smaller than ever. Gone are the days of setting out to explore uncharted territory for months or years at a time in order to map our world. Instead, all we have to do now is open up a smartphone and the world is at our fingertips in remarkable detail. Thanks to technology such as GPS and remote sensing, the land is more predictable and easier to traverse than ever. We are now also closely connected to one another and can talk, trade goods, and exchange ideas with people all over the world in an instant. No more relying on snail mail and carrier pigeons! But, with the advancements in our technology and the ability to spread out and create industry in more places, the animals and environment around us are struggling to keep their place and adapt to our changing behavior. This unfortunately includes parrots. 

The Rapidly Shrinking Earth

There’s no doubt about it, our world is changing in ways that have never been seen before - and it’s doing so rapidly. But in nature, changes take place over very long periods of time and are much more subtle than recent human advancements. In terms of the ecological passage of time, even a few ten thousand years is just the blink of an eye. While parrots have shifted their habitats at times in response to changes in climate and vegetation, their distribution on the planet now would remain pretty similar to where they were several thousands of years ago. This is how nature has always evolved and adapted. 

So, we seem to have a mismatch. As humans find it easier to spread out and require more resources and land to fuel our advancing technology, parrots and other animals find themselves having to take up less and less space in their native habitats in response. Some species, such as the Sun Conure in South America, already occupied a somewhat small range of land. What happens when we start encroaching on their habitat is that they have less space and resources and are forced into smaller areas. This is a repeating pattern for parrots of all different species everywhere.

Our rapid societal and industrial changes have driven us to seek and claim more land than ever in almost every corner of the Earth. We don’t just seek land for living and farming for our family and communities anymore, we also use it for things like resource extraction, single-crop farming, manufacturing, and now with advancements in AI, large data centers. We create large single-crop farms for things like palm oil and expand for cattle and other livestock. When we create these large farms, we often leave it less healthy when and if we leave. With our industry also comes the use of pesticides and herbicides which harms the surrounding ecosystem and destroys food sources for the birds such as vegetation and insects. Parrots are finding themselves in an ever shrinking area with less and less security and stability. As we move in, parrots move out, and it isn’t good. 

Real World Examples

The truth is, about one in three species of parrot are endangered today. About three quarters of those species are endangered or threatened due to habitat loss and fragmentation (when an animal’s habitat is broken up into smaller areas due to things like construction and logging, etc.) Here are just a few examples of parrot species that are struggling with this issue today:

As we mentioned earlier, the Sun conure is one of those species of parrot that is being driven into smaller areas of land. They already occupy a pretty small range in the northeastern forests of South America. Because of hunting/poaching as well as deforestation, there are now more Sun conures living in captivity than there are in their natural habitat. They are losing that habitat due in large part to the agricultural expansion for crops like soybeans and large areas of land being used for livestock ranching. Slash-and-burn farming, where existing vegetation is cut down and burned to make space for farming, as well as logging are also large factors in their habitat loss. 

Another example is the Thick-billed Parrot. They used to have a range from Mexico into the Southwestern part of the United States. Logging and the removal of their nesting sites has made it so that they no longer can be found in the US. They can now only be found in parts of Mexico. The Hyacinth in South America is another species facing habitat loss. This is thanks to issues like the clearing of land for agricultural use and other factors leading to a rapid loss of their native habitat. Conservation efforts have been underway for parrots that are struggling, but more needs to be done to secure their future.

What Can Be Done?

There are things that can be done to give the parrots of the world some breathing room, help restore their numbers, and protect the resources they need to survive. It’s important that people are aware of the issue, but without action, awareness alone doesn’t help the birds. Recognition must be followed up with additional studies and a plan of action to implement changes. Getting everyone on the same page isn’t easy and a lot of the work that is being done to help the birds is done by non-profit organizations and fragmented environmental groups in different locations because parrots are so geographically scattered. But, we have seen big, positive changes take place before when people come together. Different species have been re-introduced or stabilized successfully in the past. So, it is possible. But, parrots are suffering habitat loss all over the planet. It is going to require some dedication and cooperation from more than a few groups of people. 

The truth is, if change is going to happen on a large scale, those changes need to start where the most harm is being done. Focusing on the systemic factors that are contributing to habitat loss such as irresponsible logging, harmful agricultural practices, and a lack of regulated protections should be a major priority. One solution is to make sure a proper environmental analysis is done when projects take place on new land so that we understand the environmental impact they will have. Official regulation and oversight would also make it so that existing precautions and protections are taking place as they should. People that are practicing illegal, harmful activities need to be held accountable as well. 

Most large-scale solutions require a lot of cooperation which is one of the major challenges we face as a species. However, we’ve come together before to solve urgent issues. We helped restore our ozone by collectively phasing out the chemicals that were depleting it. We banned leaded fuel through a global campaign when we realized the public health crisis that was being caused by it. The challenge we must first face is getting people to recognize the importance of habitat protection and push for the changes needed to protect the birds that we love. It’s not just about the birds, though, it’s about all of us. We have to find ways to encourage our progress and innovation without sacrificing the planet that we share. We can live alongside parrots without doing them harm. We just have to be mindful of our impact on them and allow them to maintain their natural way of life. 

References:

Thick-billed parrot. Audubon. (2026, April 29). https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/thick-billed-parrot