April 10, 2025
ISLAND OF PARROTS, PARA, BELEM, BRAZIL
Another reason we got a hotel room in Belem for the night was we wanted to go on Sunrise trip Sunday morning to the Island of the Parrots. A driver picked us up from Hotel at 5 am and took us to a small boat dock, where we met tour guide and boat captain and traveled to Parrot Island. It was about a 30 minute ride thru the harbor and we arrived right when the first rays of morning sun were awakening the 100's of Mangrove Parrots, who live on this island.
OH WHAT A SHOW WE SAW!! The photos don't do justice to the experience. First off, you hear the noise before you see anything. It comes in waves, as 100's of Mangrove Parrots wake up and start squawking. Our guide explained parrots mate for life and the female does the picking. So you see 2 birds flying together as a couple, 3 birds is a female testing out 2 males, and the balance of 4 through 8 size groups are families where the kids are just learning to fly the distance and many times can't make it - so the whole family comes back and they go on to plan B. The morning light is magical! Five of us from ship part took - Silja, Memo, Callie Scott & Myself along with 2 college grads from London.
Below are closeups of Mangrove Parrots from our Amazon visit to tribe and center photo is off guide's website.
After birds quiet down and morning show is over, we sail back to port, but detour through small tributaries and get to see a number of island cottages and homes.
