The Spix's Macaw was too beautiful for its own good. Well, it still is. There are about 180 of them left alive, all in captivity. The bird is now extinct in the wild. And it's because people had to own them; always rare since first identified as a separate species in 1819, they were hunted for the pet trade, until they were all gone. This fascinating article tells about the hope for this bird and the reintroduction to the wild that began in June of this year. A bio at the end of the article says that its author has also written a book on the color blue. Unfortunately it's only in German, and my high school German won't allow me to read it.
Happiness
is
often represented
by a
blue bird.
The raucous
Blue Jay,
perhaps?
Or one of the
noisy starling species
in Africa?
Or maybe
an Eastern Bluebird
or a Mountain Bluebird
in North America?
I’m afraid it was
the Spix’s Macaw.
Could it be
this particular blue bird,
extinct now in the wild,
that held the secret of happiness?
Do any of the surviving
Spix’s Macaws
in captivity
remember?
Spix himself
only ever saw one,
which he shot.
Now they’re trying
to reintroduce these birds
to the wild,
and maybe that elusive
flash of blue
will be seen again.
Sometimes
happiness
feels
that rare,
that unlikely.
©Ruth Bowen Hersey
1 comment:
Thank you for this educational, poignant post. 💕 How dare Spix shoot the first one! It sticks in my craw that it is named for him. Are macaws the ones who yell for hours every day because that's what they do, so you should think hard before getting one as a pet? I love the idea of people being driven mad by their yelling Spixes, although that's probably not what happened, haha.
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