Transformation: Parrot Welfare, Rescue, and Conservation Across the Decades
- LoraKim Joyner
- 1 hour ago
- 2 min read
Parrot conservationists in La Moskitia attend to a yellow-naped Amazon parrot who is training to be liberated after being confiscated from poachers by authorities
What do parrot welfare, rescue and conservation have to do with each other?
Transformation.
Recently, two-lifelong activists in these fields were our guests during our monthly Transformative Parrot Conservation Conversations, and they spoke of how they had been transformed and how to do transformative work (see video recordings below).
Our guest in December 2025 was Karen Windsor, Executive Director of Foster Parrots, which is dedicated to the “rescue and protection of unwanted and abused companion parrots and other displaced captive exotic animals.” She spoke of how working with so many suffering individuals has changed her, and yet underneath the burden of caring for so many animals tragically harmed by humans, there emerges a sense of reverence. This reverence is one attribute that allows people to continue their work over decades, which is necessary for the often-slow steps forward towards transformation.
The Mesoamerica Program Advisor for the Wildlife Conservation Society, Roan McNab, echoed some of Karen’s comments during our January conversation. He said conservationists needed patience, persistence, and humility for the long-haul local efforts that are needed. Many years ago, Roan wrote this to me:
“No doubt, there must be a more spiritual element behind all our folk do, the risks they take. Something far beyond their monthly salaries or their adventures in the field – because after all, there is fun and excitement, energy, and adrenaline in this calling. There too must be something of the unseen architecture that binds us all. An unseen hand: the unspoken word which simply is.”
I know from my own work that parrots and the people who work and live with them have grown my reverence for life, and without a doubt, honed by ego impulses so that I can stay present to the work for decades. Karen and Roan help me remember that one may not see transformation happening or perceive the results, but one can live it.
Our upcoming guest on February 13, 2026, Meredith Garmon, will continue with the theme of reverence, and connecting to something greater than ourselves so as to be transformed and engage in transformative work. Rev. Dr. Meredith Garmon is a retired Unitarian Universalist minister, Director of One Earth Zen, Zen Buddhist Teacher, Co-abbot of One Earth Retreat Center, and a member of One Earth Conservation’s Board of Directors. His title is World as Lover; World as Self. Buddhist and Philosophical Insights into Transformative Conservation. (For more information and to register, go here).
Following Meredith, we will take a short break and return in May with these topics:
May, Saturday May 16th, 2 p.m. EDT: Parrot Pilgrimage as a Transformative Act
June, Friday June 19th, 2 p.m. EDT: Unconditional Solidarity in the Field in Honduras
July, Friday, July 10th, 2 p.m. EDT: Parrot Conservation Corps - Spreading Transformation through Communities