Tree Climb and Macaw Chick Extraction from the Ceiba Tree Nest

Climbing trees in the rainforest to reach the Macaw nests was one of the best parts of being part of the Tambopata Macaw Project, and this is what I did when I climbed this 30+ meter Ceiba Tree to get to the Macaw chick (and angry mom) waiting at the top.
This climb was one of my favorites, since you can see all across the Tambopata River. Sadly, due to flooding this tree lost its support, and fell into the river not too long ago. BUT the chick inside fledged before it happened, so no worries. the ENORMOUS Tambopata river in this video is only one tiny part of the Amazon River system, which when seeing this, puts in to perspective on how massive the total amount of fresh water is in the Amazon; something that can support the incredibly amount of life found in the rainforest.
In this case the mom decided to stay in the nest during the whole climb; most of them usually fly away, but a few learn that the best (and most annoying) place for them to be is in the nest. The chick can still be extracted, but it requires a carefull use of a towel to protect me, but more importantly the chick and the mother. In this video I used the towel to protect my left hand as I coaxed the mother to the back and a little up the wall. While holding up the towel as a shield, I was able to protect my right hand as I reached in to grab the chick, and while squirming and grabbing, still able to get him safely in the bucket. If there's something wrong, or getting to the chick proves to difficult or dangerous, we never took them out in that case.

[@BodaciousBen1]

Before you comment, I encourage you to watch the video to its end, the chick gets placed back in its nest, just like every time we went up to check on them. This was part of a research and rehab project to study Scarlett Macaw's ability to raise young, myself and the project are in staunch opposition to poaching birds for the pet trade, or for any other reason. Thank you for the support from the people who have watched this in full and understand what we try to do!

[@swelone7959]

Your doing such a great job 💗🙂 please keep it up, earth needs people like you

[@safooraiqbal8881]

Yeah but if someone kept you in a room how would you feel

[@swelone7959]

@@safooraiqbal8881 you probably don't really get what's this video about, do you? Read description if you still don't know what's this person job about.

[@BilalAhmed-il8bl]

Good work bro👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗♥️🤗🤗♥️🤗♥️♥️🤗♥️🤗♥️🤗♥️🤗🤗♥️♥️🤗♥️🤗♥️🤗👌👌👌👌👌👌👌

[@rasheshjinwala4881]

Excellent work... I appreciate your effort.... From India...

[@sirajshahid1491]

Good job man. Also very risky but I hope you like this work. I am extreme pet (bird) lover in Pakistan and I take care of my pets such as cocktail, gray parrot, love birds, flinches like my family. All parrots are hand tamed and talking since I hand feed them since birth and in return they love in a way I can't explain in words but it's amazing plus I don't caged them they freely roam around in whole house and I have given them special environment to enjoy nature aswell. My next target is macaws and cockatoo. For sure they need time and attention if any one can promise then it's fine to keep as per else not recommended.

[@ryanmichalski3490]

Dude don’t EVER get a cockatoo!! Trust me

[@sowmirhythm7630]

Save birds man

[@kashifbutt1861]

Good job man

[@BirdsCollectionKarachi]

VERY Adventure video

[@syedmuzamil2044]

I like your sound man

[@superanimalsbirds5666]

Nice video

[@whynotnaveen]

what will you do with the chick? Why don't you just leave the wild bird live on its own?

[@BodaciousBen1]

The chicks in this nest and others the project manages are constantly monitored for parasites, growth deformities, and malnutrition. Although unfortunately it involves causing a lot of stress for the parents and the nestlings, it ultimately does them a lot more good than if they were left on their own. Sometimes it becomes difficult for the parents to find enough of the right food, so if that's the case we help them out. As well, all of this is being recorded on which methods are most successful, so in this relatively stable population we can tweak some things without having to worry about lasting damages. This is in order to find the best way to rehabilitate macaws in other populations that are more threatened or endangered.

[@nznnazwin498]

It's a nature so we can't do that

[@tjocgamer2554]

Keep it as a pet :3

[@kevinsamuel3167]

@@tjocgamer2554 bro why are u cruel to wild animals by making them your pets. Instead go to a pet store a get from a breeder

[@jessmynott5867]

@@tjocgamer2554 parrots are emotionally and physically fragile and because of this they are very hard to keep as pets. hand reared ones are a little better because they are use to humans but they can still have issues too such as feather plucking which is a really common issue in hand reared birds and can be caused by a huge variety of things too such as sexual frustration , poor diet , boredom , stress , not enough sun light and so on

[@ligayaespiritu1346]

Wait so you stayed up there for another 40 mins???

[@maxkalada5951]

good job, man

[@galankgalank2900]

good

[@muna3196]

the good job man's in the comments..idk if it's sarcasm

[@HarjitSingh-ul4ls]

Sala

[@HarjitSingh-ul4ls]

This is wild parrot baby never pick it

[@bobbylee2985]

Dam thats a neat job

[@rsankhi6987]

hi sir

[@msunniimtiazinformationcha313]

Excellent job really I like it.

[@HarjitSingh-ul4ls]

Sala

[@HarjitSingh-ul4ls]

This is wild parrot baby never pick it

[@vinayakchandran8560]

Is this the wild bird. If so how come it sits on a man-made nest

[@maxkalada5951]

these parrots are capable of amazing things and can adjust to human help.

[@bellablue7661]

Due to deforestation a lot of the birds’ nesting sites have been lost. People put the boxes up so that they still have a place to nest and raise their babies.

[@bellasmysingingmonstersent6317]

4:44 Scarlet!

[@user-qi4df3uz2l]

Do people write comments without watching the video? He put the chick back to the nest in the video. It means that he is just checking up the chick for its sake. Why do people consider him as a cruel poacher.

[@maxkalada5951]

good looking chick

[@alisaheer2673]

Boss i think you are feeding the chick..

[@jhoelyjhamilfloresmendoza3112]

Por un momento yo pensé que se lo quito al bebé guacamayo más bien se lo devolvió 👌👌👍👪

[@ahmedsbirdsanimals2719]

I love this job 😍😍

[@s.g.m.interriorandfarmthur9548]

Super

[@rehanaimran6055]

Wow macaw made a whole nesting box instead of of a nest

[@the.beauty.of.feathers7738]

do you think after you take away the baby does the wants the baby

[@totalgaming3237]

Macav is sale

[@Pirateofdahcaribbean_83]

Too calm to be wild🤣🤣🤣 My pet blue & gold would haul ass n scream bloody murder if anyone gets close to him or when ever he sees people. You mean to tell me a wild parrot...a mother at that just throwing lil bites n so calm..naa can't b. Plus why is there a lock on the box/next. Wouldn't the mom try run away from what ever opening ther is? Or unless they just locked her un until they bring the baby back then leave it unlocked I guess.

[@safooraiqbal8881]

You cant do that its wrong a macaws baby is not for playing for 40 mins

[@younischouhan59]

😍😍😍😍

[@briananuvattanachai6646]

Which country was this in? I know that the northern subspecies of scarlet macaw ranging from country to country in Central America can be listed from vulnerable to endangered. However the southern subspecies is pretty common in South America.

[@BodaciousBen1]

This is at the Tambopata Research Center in the Madre de Dios rainforest of Peru. Thanks for the clarifying question!

[@briananuvattanachai6646]

@@BodaciousBen1 is trapping parrots for the illegal pet trade a problem in Peru?

[@BodaciousBen1]

@@briananuvattanachai6646 yes, very unfortunately it is. The problem is, in many developed countries, including the United States, the trafficking of wild parrots for the pet trade is illegal, however it is much cheaper to buy a poached bird off the black market than it is is to buy from a licensed breeder. That's why there's an economic incentive for the poaching to take place.

[@briananuvattanachai6646]

@@BodaciousBen1 from what I read is that international illegal trade(with the exception of China, Indonesia, the UAE, and etc) is no longer the problem now it's domestic. For instance the red crowned amazon native to Mexico is listed as being the 4th most commonly found cage bird confiscated, the military macaw being the 5th. What parrot species have been affected by the illegal pet trade in Peru? I can only thing of one so far the blue headed macaw.

[@ryanmichalski3490]

Big clumsy baby macaw

[@babusonask5372]

Hi

[@taj682]

Price koto Ami nite chai

[@muhammaddayyaan3377]

❤💘

[@punitramsahu6132]

Bad work save 🐦 ok

[@albeejoseph6896]

I was wondered of macaws from child hood. And i would like to care for them and make their population massive. So Sir, Benjamin Becker i would like to do this as a passion and profession so what steps should i take for this after my 12th grade and iam basically from India what course is it.

[@drajay8671]

Why don’t u just drag the box to land and lift again after finishing of your work instead u go and climb the tree

[@muhammadriduan1591]

Dapet dari mane hutan mane

[@BirdsCollectionKarachi]

#BirdsCollectionKarachi

[@noufel-t4o]

Ok

[@sudhakarkantamaneni682]

Oh sorry I didn’t see

[@sudhakarkantamaneni682]

Thats just sad what are you going to do with the chick

[@BodaciousBen1]

The chick is (was) completely wild, and was never removed permanently from its nest. At most, it was with the veterinarian team down below for an hour, then placed back in the nest each time we visited to be taken care of by its parents. Eventually, the chick grew up in the nest, and left on its own with its parents. It's still and always was a wild bird, and is out in the rainforest now hopefully raising the next generation of Scarlett Macaws!

[@ansajansu7734]

Fake vedio. The birs have leg ring..... how is it before he got the bird. They says that it is wild. Actually it is not wild

[@Pirateofdahcaribbean_83]

They may have been caught before then band. Many birds and other animals in the wild have bands since they been caught or used for research... Plus it can't b the first time they did this or its fake like you said.. The mother parrot is way too calm compared to my parrot which is a pet and would react way worse than that for mom with a chick at that.

[@mariammishkat6278]

Will you sell it??

[@BodaciousBen1]

No, they're not being collected, they're being studied in the wild and to sell it would be aweful and illegal.

[@msunniimtiazinformationcha313]

#parrotloverinformationchannel

[@barasatsantu8548]

Hii

[@nkdnsjejebsjw3083]

Dont catch them they are decreasing day by day we have stop.it

[@absolutelynormalbogstandar5251]

They aren’t catching it for the illegal pet trade fortunately, they’re just collecting the babies and looking for parasites, deformities and health issues before putting them back in the nest with mom so the wild populations can be studied and protected

[@maribethwheat7462]

Waffle House Waffle 🧇 Bacon 🥓 Eggs 🍳 French Toasts 🍞 Milkshake 🥤 Coke 🥤

[@usmanshareef8733]

Rundy

[@thatoutdoorlife]

The chick Is close banded I dunno what's going on here

[@BodaciousBen1]

At that point the chick's leg won't grow any larger so the band won't constrict its leg.

[@arvindkumarprajapati1]

Brother I want to buy how much cost

[@mustakimhossainzarif7906]

Scarlet macaw adult cost 7 to 6.50 lak brother and baby cost 3,2,4 lak I have 4scarlet macaw wanna purchase my bro

[@arvindkumarprajapati1]

@@mustakimhossainzarif7906 you are indian

[@mustakimhossainzarif7906]

@@arvindkumarprajapati1 nahi bhi ma Bangladesh hu

[@arvindkumarprajapati1]

@@mustakimhossainzarif7906 brother I want to deal with you i am bird breeder if you want any bird tell me

[@mustakimhossainzarif7906]

@@arvindkumarprajapati1 ya I want an hyacinth macaw

[@zoraidainga458]

Pobres papagayos es injusto que le quiten a su mamá todo por dinero

[@galankgalank2900]

salam from indonesia makassar

[@ramsmindpeuk8787]

If he is conservationist or scientist then its OK but otherwise I oppose and against smuggling or keeping birds species as pet. Its pure evil practice.

[@bellablue7661]

He mentioned under another comment that they are checking the birds for parasites and deformities before returning them to the nest.

[@armanshar269]

Fazull

[@KapilSharma-sj4rt]

Inhumane act

[@muhammadhuzaifa6775]

Shame to u

[@lordjoelang4473]

Why? Do u even know what did he do?

[@gpproject1548]

he does check ups on the ma caws cayse there indanger

[@shaun7057]

Shame on you for trying to shame someone who's actually doing something positive for these wild parrots while you sit behind a computer screen in your home!! Both of which have probably caused more damage to wild animals than you think this man has done!!! You can see yourself right on outta this comment section

[@gpproject1548]

@@shaun7057 like u?

[@dontsubscribepleaseibeg]

Ha ha ,Shame to.