A brightly coloured scarlet macaw soars over 1,000-year-old ruins in Honduras, a country in Central America. After flying over an ancient pyramid, the bird lands on a carved stone sculpture of… itself!
Scarlet macaws were sacred to the Maya, people who thrived in this region between AD 300 and 900. This site, called the Copán ruins, has more macaw imagery, such as statues and carvings, than any other Maya spot. But by the early 2000s, real scarlet macaws were in danger of disappearing from the region.
POACHING PROBLEMS
With their curious nature, colourful feathers and ability to mimic human speech, many people around the world wanted scarlet macaws as pets throughout the 1900s. So local people would climb trees in Central American forests to steal their chicks. One bird could be…
