Lear's macaw at the original Birdland 1973

Birdland, Bourton on the Water (now closed), 5th April 1977. Scanned from a Kodachrome slide.
I used to love visiting the original Birdland, but this image shows its deficiencies when judged by modern standards. There were 2 female Lear's in this very small and bare aviary. I don't think I ever saw them move around. At the same time there were 3 unpaired males in Florida, but nothing happened.

gentle lemur said:

Birdland, Bourton on the Water (now closed), 5th April 1977. Scanned from a Kodachrome slide.
I used to love visiting the original Birdland, but this image shows its deficiencies when judged by modern standards. There were 2 female Lear's in this very small and bare aviary. I don't think I ever saw them move around. At the same time there were 3 unpaired males in Florida, but nothing happened.

Click to expand...

And the current sex / age ratio?

One of these original females involved?
1 or 2 pairs now? When were the chicks hatched?

Birdland has not held this species in decades, KB!

Frustratingly there *is* a breeding pair in the UK not far from me, but they are off-display and the collection in question denies having them

TeaLovingDave said:

Birdland has not held this species in decades, KB!

Frustratingly there *is* a breeding pair in the UK not far from me, but they are off-display and the collection in question denies having them

Click to expand...

Harewood perhaps?

Any chance these may eventually flow into the breeding program set up by the Brazil Govt.?

Kifaru Bwana said:

And the current sex / age ratio?

One of these original females involved?
1 or 2 pairs now? When were the chicks hatched?

Click to expand...

There was no happy ending to the story. One of the birds had died before the original Birdland closed in 1988. The other ended up in the collection of Mr Harry Sissen, where it was paired with a male he imported (perhaps legally), both birds died in the early 1990s.
The only birds in the UK now are the smuggled ones confiscated from Mr Sissens and their descendants, held off-show at Harewood House. As TLD says, HH deny this, but the studbook is in the public domain and so are many photos (https://www.flickr.com/photos/36917655@N08/albums/72157631814194879).
It was originally hoped that the 3 birds could be repatriated to Brazil, but they were found to be infected with Herpes virus, and so repatriation would have been unwise.
Incidentally I was wrong about the birds in Florida, there was an old male and two young females. The male died and the females were sent to Loro Parque, to join the breeding programme there.