Tim Laman

| Wildlife Photojournalist

Wildlife Diaries

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New Film and Story: Saving Mexico’s Endangered Macaws

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Last year I had an assignment from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to go to Chiapas, Mexico, and work with the non-profit group Natura Mexicana, to make a short film about their work trying to save the endangered Scarlet Macaws. My son Russell joined me as our second cameraman, and we worked with the awesome team from Natura Mexicana to document their work and the beautiful macaws. Our film is now finished and is live on their website: https://www.naturamexicana.org.mx


Natura Mexicana are taking a unique approach to a challenging situation. Poachers are stealing chicks for the illegal wildlife trade. Other solutions having failed, the conservationists are pulling young chicks from the nests before the poachers get them, and hand-rearing them. It’s a labor of love, but its working and over 200 chicks have been raised and released. Adults don’t make good pets, so once free and wild, the birds are safe from poachers.
You can read the full story on the National Geographic website


Ultimately of course, these drastic measures are only a stopgap solution. We need to educate people and remove the demand for wild-caught parrots as pets so this illegal wildlife trade will end. It was great to have the opportunity to work with Russell to help tell this story, and I hope you will watch the video and read the story and share it with others. Awareness and education is the only way we can eventually solve this problem.


Below I share a few more images from our coverage in Mexico.

Primary Colors in Flight

Scarlet macaw in flight
I love photographing birds in flight, and a water tower at the research station provided me an elevated viewpoint where I could photograph macaws coming and going from some of their favorite trees. I like this image because I managed to capture the spectacular Scarlet Macaw with its wings and tail fully spread out as it came in for a landing, revealing the full extent of its striking primary colored plumage.

More Outtakes from our Macaw Story

A flock of scarlet macaws.
The Central American subspecies of Scarlet Macaw is notably social, often gather in flocks at roosting and feeding sites, and that made for some striking photo opportunities like this one of a whole group landing in a tree.
Scarlet Macaw pair.

Macaws form long-term pair bonds and are constantly hanging out with and interacting with their mates.

Scarlet macaws nest in natural tree cavities, and both parents take turns bringing food back for the chicks once they have hatched. Here one adult waits for the other to emerge from the nest cavity so it can go in.

Tree climber to help macaws.

Beating the poachers at their own game, researcher Raul Mendez climbs a rope to a nest site to remove a chick for captive rearing, placing it in a bucket to lower to the ground.

Once a chick has been brought into captivity, there are many weeks of intense labor involved to raise it by hand. Here Griselda Quintana and Rodrigo Leon feed chicks at the captive rearing facility.

scarlet macaws in flight.

It was great working with my son Russell on the shoot. He is an accomplished photographer in his own right, and captured some unique images like this one that added to our coverage. You can see more of his work at www.russlaman.com.

As always, thanks for tuning in. As I mentioned above, please share the links to our film and article, and help spread the word about the crisis of the illegal wildlife trade. Only awareness and education can bring these cruel practices to a halt, and allow birds like the Scarlet Macaw to raise their young in the wild the way they are supposed to.

Best regards to all!
Tim Laman

PS. We continue to add new images and update our galleries at TimLamanFineArt.com throughout the year, so be sure to take a look from time to time and see what’s new. Thanks!

PPS. If you are a wildlife photography enthusiast or know one, do check out my online courses at “Bird Photography Masterclass” I can be your guide to help take your photography to the next level. Available as gifts as well.