Preparing Captive-Bred Parrots for Life in the Wild: Shaping Feeding Behavior

Preparing a parrot raised in captivity to live in the wild is a far more delicate and demanding process than one might think. Life in the wild requires skills that these animals do not develop automatically, and one of the most decisive is learning to identify, locate, access, and consume the foods of their natural environment. While these abilities may seem instinctive, they actually need to be built through experience, which is why careful rehabilitation is essential. Their survival and ability to function independently in the wild depend largely on this preparation.

Essential Learnings Before Release

Before focusing on food, it is worth remembering that life in the wild requires mastering a whole range of parallel skills. Throughout their childhood and adolescence, parrots must learn to recognize individuals of their own species and interact with them normally. Identifying potential predators and exhibiting the appropriate behavior to stay safe is also fundamental; they need to develop effective, agile flight with the endurance necessary to move across wide areas; they must know how to navigate different substrates, climb, balance, hang, and move along branches that are not always stable. They must also be able to find water at certain times of the year, even though many parrots obtain much of their water from their diet. All these skills are acquired in a perfect cocktail of instinct and social experience when they grow up in the wild. However, when raised in captivity, the environment does not promote the same types of experiences unless rehabilitators expressly adapt it for this purpose.

Whether hand-raised parrots (left) or parent-raised (right), the captive environment will not teach them the skills they need to survive in the wild, unless rehabilitators work deliberately to provide that learning. - Own photographs.

Moreover, if we want the release to truly contribute to species preservation as part of the ecosystem—a condition I personally consider sine qua non—it is also crucial that they can identify cavities or structures suitable for nesting and develop appropriate reproductive behaviors. A parrot that cannot reproduce is an individual that is not contributing to the consolidation of the population in that area, and therefore its impact on ecosystem functions is, in a sense, artificial.

All of these elements are part of the preparation process for life in the wild. However, in this entry, I want to focus exclusively on shaping feeding behavior.

In this video, you can see a scarlet macaw just released (6 days post-release), when it is still not fully capable of moving agilely in the natural environment. Even individuals considered fully rehabilitated face challenges during the first weeks after release. If the preparation had not been optimal, imagine what could have happened to this poor macaw. – Own footage.

Understanding the natural diet: the first step

The foundation of any conditioning process is understanding what parrots actually eat in the wild. Although each species has its peculiarities, most share an important characteristic: they are opportunistic animals with a relatively broad and flexible diet. They feed on fruits, seeds, shoots, flowers, immature plant structures, and occasionally animal-derived resources. This flexibility is not accidental; it is an adaptive trait associated with the seasonal and geographic variability of available resources. In other words, they tend to eat what they can find at any given time and place.

Now, what is an early-developed skill for a wild parrot through social learning and exploration from a young age can be completely unknown territory for a captive-bred parrot. An individual that has grown up on commercial food or a very limited repertoire of fruits and vegetables will not be able to identify a wild fruit, recognize it as edible, or manipulate it correctly to access its nutritious parts.

For this reason, a key element in pre-release preparation is identifying the real and available food sources throughout the year at the specific site where the animal will be released, collecting them from the local environment, and offering them consistently throughout the process. And I emphasize “the site where the animal will be released”: it is not enough to review literature or extrapolate general data on the species’ natural diet. We must explore the territory ourselves, observe the ecosystem, and record what resources are actually available in sufficient quantities. It is of little use to offer starfruit daily, for example, just because we have an accessible tree at the center, if that plant is not part of the real availability in the release habitat.

The haul we brought back with us after one of the many expeditions in search of natural food resources for the rehabilitation of scarlet macaws in Costa Rica. – Own photograph.

Teaching them to identify and manipulate food

For an inexperienced parrot, a palm fruit, a hard seed, or the kernel of a wild species does not necessarily “look” like food. In the first days, many parrots ignore them, manipulate them as if they were objects, or discard them entirely. This is normal: the cognitive process of food classification requires associative experiences.

Therefore, the first step usually involves mixing familiar foods with these wild items, creating a more gradual transition. This mixture generates a first association: this is in the feeder, it looks like food, it is with the food… so it is probably food as well.

However, a parrot recognizing a food as edible does not mean it knows how to access it. In the wild, parrots develop fine motor skills related to fruit manipulation: holding it with their foot, applying just the right force to crack a shell, using the beak to peel, twist, remove outer layers, or break plant fibers, and so on. In captivity, many parrots initially have soft, easy-to-chew food without tough protective layers. This means they must learn from scratch how to manipulate a wild food.

A group of scarlet macaws (Ara macao) foraging in a beach almond tree on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica. – Photograph by Noelia Sánchez.

When dealing with fruits or seeds that are difficult to open, it is advisable to facilitate access to the interior during the first days. For example, in the rehabilitation of scarlet macaws on the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, splitting the palm fruit in half, slightly opening beach almonds, or removing part of a very hard seed shell allows them to recognize the internal characteristics of the food without having to perform a complex cracking behavior yet. Once they recognize the item as food, the rest is a matter of practice: gradually, human intervention is reduced until the fruits are finally offered completely intact, just as they would be found in nature.

Some of the food items on these trays are halved to facilitate access for macaws that are still in the middle of their preparation process. – Own photograph.

Finally, if we ensure they have a sufficiently varied and changing diet, parrots will develop something even more valuable than simply knowing what to eat and how to do it: they develop food plasticity. That is, the ability to identify and manipulate new food resources even when they have never been exposed to them before. Experience handling fruits or seeds of different hardness, shape, and texture also allows them to extrapolate skills to new items after release. Therefore, parrots accustomed to a broad and varied diet will have a much higher chance of survival than parrots that only recognize a few foods.

The trays in which wild food was prepared and stored for the scarlet macaw breeding and reintroduction project. – Own photograph.

Accessing food: another key lesson

The presentation of food is as important as the food itself. In nature, fruits are rarely found on stable and easily accessible surfaces like feeders or trays: they hang in clusters, grow at the tips of flexible branches, hide among leaves, or are at heights that require the animal to climb or fly to reach them.

Therefore, during rehabilitation, it is crucial to reproduce these conditions and promote a wide range of behaviors and food access skills. Once parrots recognize and consume items in their natural form, we begin to offer them:

• hanging in their original clusters whenever possible,

  
  

• placed on high and flexible branches,

  
  

• located at different spots in the enclosure (and varied day by day),

  
  

• and on structures that require more complex behaviors, like climbing, stretching, hanging upside down, or moving in balance.quieren trepar, estirarse, colgarse boca abajo o desplazarse en equilibrio.

This part of the process not only reinforces foraging skills but also contributes to the overall physical development of the animal. Parrots learn to judge distances, use their beak as a support tool, change posture with agility, and maneuver in three-dimensional space as they will have to in the environments they will inhabit.

A small mango hung for the rehabilitation of the feeding behavior of a group of bronzed parakeets (Brotogeris jugularis). – Photograph by Noelia Sánchez.

Are they ready for release?

Once we consider parrots prepared from a feeding perspective, there are still other aspects to evaluate, but these should have been worked on in parallel. When, in addition to optimal feeding behavior, they demonstrate:

• good physical health,

  
  

• an age sufficient to behave independently in the wild,

  
  

• physical development appropriate for their age,

  
  

• agile and efficient flight,

  
  

• the ability to move and navigate natural substrates skillfully and coherently,

  
  

• normal social behavior,

  
  

• and an appropriate response to predators,

then we can consider them ready for release.

This process is generally determined by the age of the animals, which varies by species. In other words, there is an optimal age range for releasing each parrot species, and rehabilitators must ensure individuals are ready within this period. Delaying release beyond this range can pose significant risks associated with prolonged captivity: a higher probability of humanization or habituation to humans, loss of essential instincts, and increased physical and mental rigidity.

Therefore, from the outset, it is essential to provide parrots with an adequate environment that teaches them everything they need and prepares them for life in the wild as early as possible. This way, when the window of opportunity for release arrives, the animals will be ready to adapt with maximum guarantees.

Taking blood samples from a macaw to screen for potential diseases one month before its release. – Photograph by Noelia Sánchez.

But, as I have said, in this entry I wanted to focus solely on preparing feeding behavior, as I consider it one of the fundamental pillars of this process and also one of the aspects that most conditions the work of rehabilitators. Preparing the diet of parrots destined for release is a laborious, gradual, and tremendously important process, although it often goes unnoticed. It is not simply about “giving them natural foods,” but about building a deep relationship between the parrot and its feeding environment. It is about teaching them not only what to eat, but how to find, manipulate, and access it, and to develop the mental flexibility needed to face a dynamic world full of variables.

All of this translates into parrots that are better prepared, more autonomous, and with greater chances of survival and establishment once returned to the wild. And ultimately, it results in a more ethical and effective conservation effort.

As always, I hope you found this content interesting, whether you are a professional in the field (or aspiring to be) or simply reading for enjoyment. I invite you to leave your comments, questions, or suggestions in the “Comments” section so we can share ideas, experiences, and perspectives. See you in the next post!

Roger Valls Martínez