Queer Parrot Nature and Transformative Conservation

Last week our Transformative Conservation Conversation meeting hosted Catriona Sanderlands (a.k.a. Cate) who spoke about the intersections of queer nature and ecology, and conservation. She motivated me to further incorporate these ideas into our conservation efforts, despite challenges from heteronormative and patriarchal systems. Ensuring our conservation efforts are safe for all, including parrots, is challenging in communities that overlook nature's diversity.

Shirley Caldwell took this photo of a rare gynandromorphic cardinal through her kitchen window. This bird is half female and half male.

Avian nature is indeede diverse. Over 150 species of birds have exhibited homosexual behavior and a multitude of theories have been proposed to explain this behavior. Often this occurs in captivity where we have the chance to observe parrots and other species. It also occurs in the wild. One study study documented two wild orange-fronted parakeets engaging in copulation in Nicaragua.

I have my own experience with parrots in this regard, having performed endoscopic surgery on them to determine their sex in the days before DNA tests were available. I have had a few rare occasions where one year a bird changed the appearance of their internal gonads – one year they had an ovary and the next they had a testicle, or vice versa.  In one parrot, they had an ovary on one side and a testicle on the other.  I have also seen a bonded pair of blue-and-yellow macaws, both female, where both laid eggs in a nest box (in a captive breeding center).

A multigenerational nest of sun parakeets in Guyana

Don’t even get me started on sun parakeets, who have active nest cavities in the wild with individuals of diverse ages spending the night in a nest cavity and feeding the young. We have also observed multiple birds copulating with each other in these active nests. We ask ourselves what this means in terms of ecology and conservation, and the welfare of these birds in captive situations. I now question if the care for birds and design of conservation projects is based on erroneous interpretations of what was observed in the past.

My brief experience with queer parrot nature and my research into other species opened my eyes as an avian veterinarian. We just do not know what is going on and the wonder and complexity is so much more than we could ever imagine. And because we limit our view, we diminish our chances for caring for life on this planet, including our own.

How might we improve our care for those in our biotic communities? Here are some ideas that arose during our conversation with Cate:

1. Aspire to work and gather in places where it is okay for you to be you, and others to be who they are as well. Do what you can to create safety and understanding.

2. Seek to work in places where it is okay to ask questions and then stretch yourself to ask, of yourself and others, “What is going on here?” or “How do we know?”

3. It is okay for questions to be “political” because science is never apolitical. Power, and the abuse of it, runs through our daily lives and social structures. Discussing the use and impact of power and control is essential in transformative conservation.

4. Grow your multispecies intelligence by delving into the world of queer nature and queer ecology.

Truly seeing the reality of life on Earth will go far towards contributing to your own well-being and that of others.