The Santa Marta Conure (Pyrrhura viridicata) is IUCN-Endangered in the wild due to habitat loss of up to 80%. The main threats to their forests are food agriculture, livestock farming, and logging, the impacts of which are ongoing. The species is not affected by illegal trapping, however there are records of hunting. Some birds are occasionally shot as crop pests.

The World Parrot Trust’s partner Ciencia Serrana, in collaboration with Proyecto de Conservación de Aguas y Tierras (ProCAT Colombia) and SELVA Investigación para la Conservación en el Neotrópico, is making positive inroads in the conservation of Santa Marta Parakeets in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Initial efforts have focused on understanding the parakeet’s habitat, observing behaviour and distribution, and engaging local communities through workshops where over 200 adults and children have been reached. The Ciencia Serrana team has installed 80 nest boxes in the birds’ habitat, and early results are showing that the normally-wary birds are beginning to approach the boxes. Local community members, trained by WPT’s field technicians, are integral to monitoring these nests.

In the long term, reforestation will begin to restore habitat with palm and other trees vital to the birds’ survival.