Colorful parrots bring hope back to brazil’s vanishing atlantic forest after generational absence

After decades of silence, the vibrant calls of red-browed amazons are once again echoing through Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. In January 2025, twenty of these brilliantly colored green-and-red parrots were released into a forest reserve in Alagoas state, marking their return to a region they hadn’t inhabited for generations.

The homecoming represents more than just species recovery—it’s a crucial step toward saving one of Earth’s most endangered ecosystems. The Atlantic Forest in Alagoas has been devastated by human activity, with only 3% of the original forest remaining, according to Luiz Fábio Silveira, deputy director of the University of São Paulo’s Museum of Zoology. These surviving forest fragments are slowly dying because the animals that once spread seeds have vanished, leaving behind only trees whose seeds can travel on wind currents.

The red-browed amazon release is part of Project ARCA (Project for the Evaluation, Recovery and Conservation of Endangered Birds), led by Silveira. These parrots serve as nature’s gardeners, dispersing seeds as they move through the forest canopy, helping to restore the natural balance that keeps forests healthy and diverse. Early signs are promising—community monitors have captured videos showing flocks of the amazons flying through the thousand-hectare Coruripe reserve.

“It’s not just the animals, but their sounds that are returning to the forest,” Silveira told Mongabay, highlighting how the project is bringing back not only ecological function but also the rich symphony of sounds that once defined these ancient woodlands.