According to Isis the Songkhla Zoo claims to have 6 El Oro Parakeets (pyrrhura orcesi). Is this correct and if so does anyone has pictures and secondly does anyone know the origin of these birds.
I've never heard of any El Oro conures being in captivity, but at the same time I greatly suspect that as soon as they were discovered they became a target for parrot collectors. I wonder if Songkhla's birds actually are El Oros?
Chlidonias, although the El Oro's were only discouvered in 1980 they were never really targeted by collectors. Pyrrhura's are amazing birds (as i can say from own experience) but except for the mollina and frontalis they are usually specialist work, not because of their difficulty to keep but due to simple popularity reasons. When finding the ISIS data my first guess was indeed that it would be another pyrrhura (or even aratinga) species, but unfortunately i could not find any pictures on their website or any email to ask.
Old article about this species : A.F.A. visits . . . Mickey Ollson,s Wildlife World Zoo | Jennings | AFA Watchbird Does anyone know if there are now maybe some El Oro's in captivity ?
I thought I might add an additional note on here that I visited the Songkhla Zoo in May this year (2017) and - if there ever were El Oro Conures there, which I doubt - they are definitely not there now. The most likely explanation is that it was simply a misplaced entry on the record system (i.e. it was supposed to refer to another Pyrrhura species). However the zoo has masses of empty aviaries so has obviously lost a lot of birds from its collection over recent years. Current species list and review here: Songkhla Zoo - Review of the Songkhla Zoo, 26 May 2017