tragic story

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This one surprised me. I delayed reading it for two years. My mistake.

Macaws seemed so alien to me, so Jungle Jim, so Circus Boy, somehow it just didn't resonate. I see nothing like them flitting around my East Tennessee home. I've known people that had parrots as pets, so they were more like cocker spaniels to me than true wild birds.

Again, my mistake.

Author Tony Juniper not only introduced me to the world of wild parrots but to the milieu of endangered bird collecting by the uber-wealthy. Men who long to possess something rare and almost unobtainable. A Spix’s macaw stolen from the wilds of Brazil sold for thousands that is once it was smuggled out of its homeland. Of course, it’s all very black market and illegal.

Now the species only exist in cages and aviaries hidden around the world.
 
Spix’s Macaw is a real page-turner about the world’s “rarest” bird and in some circles, the world's most valuable. 

Thanks, Paul for recommending this fascinating book.
 

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