I can't help but be angry knowing that American hobbyists aren't allowed to breed native birds and can never even have the chance to help the government with restoring populations if they choose to because of the MBTA. How do people in Europe keep the genetic diversity without poaching new animals? This sort of further proves that prohibitions are useless.
A small founder-population of this species was brought in by one or a few German birdparks around the 1990s, the birds can from US-bird-rescue centers and involved birds which couldn't be released anymore.
Because of their rarity in Europe, great effort was paid to breed them and from there on also privat bird-breeders got involved ( the price for these birds was quite high ! ).
Because of the high value I'm quite sure that in the 1990s and 2000s birds were smuggled from the USA and wintering grounds in Mexico ( mainly to Eastern Europe ) but by now the population is large enough and the prize somewhat fallen so its not anymore worth the risk to smuggle new birds.
I can imaginate the frustration of hobbyists not being able to contribute to save native wildlife ! Is it realy not possible to get some kind of licence to take over animals from rescue centers which can't be anymore be released into the wild and to breed healthy stock from these. These young can then again be released into the wild.
@vogelcommando It is possible for a get a license to keep rescue native birds that have no where also to go, as long as you have prior experience, but I believe breeding of these birds is not allowed.
@birdsandbats You basically have to justify yourself by being a "savior". I'm sure you can't go to the government for permission because you want to do this as a hobby.
