Mangba Parrots

Mangba Parrots

Mangba Parrots

The Mangba villagers’ group is a Brown ethnic village located within the jurisdiction of Cizhulin Village, Simao Port Town, Simao District. It sits on the edge of the Nuozhadu Nature Reserve and has over 50 households and more than 200 residents. It’s just over an hour’s drive from Nalan. This is a place of beautiful mountains and clear waters, where birds sing among fragrant flowers and the land is blessed with remarkable people. Here…

The Great Pied Parrot, also known as the Large Red-billed Parrot, is a medium-sized bird measuring 35 to 50 centimeters in length. It boasts vibrant plumage, graceful posture, and is adept at mimicking human speech. Male birds have purplish-gray heads and sides of the neck, with their foreheads and faces tinged with purple-blue or purple-green. A narrow black stripe runs along the base of the beak from the forehead, extending backward along the lores to both eyes—an unusual feature. Each side of the lower beak has a wide black stripe that slants down along the lower cheek to the sides of the neck. The chin is black and merges with the black stripes on the sides. The hindneck, shoulders, back, waist, and uppertail coverts are green. The central tail feathers are blue, while the lateral ones are green, with the blue coloration decreasing toward the outer tail feathers. Each tail feather more or less has yellowish-brown inner edges and tips. The chin is black, and below the black patch it turns grape-purple, sometimes tinged with purple-blue—a feature that most distinctly sets it apart from other parrots. The area around the anus, undertail coverts, and thigh coverts are green. Females are similar in coloration to males, but have shorter central tail feathers, lack blue on the forehead, and have a brownish-pink band behind the ear coverts. Males have coral-red upper beaks, while females have black upper beaks. Their feet are grayish-greenish-yellow.

The Great Pied Parrot is a resident bird, inhabiting broad-leaved forests, mixed forests, and coniferous forests at altitudes below 4,000 meters, particularly common in broad-leaved and mixed forests at around 2,000–3,000 meters. It flies swiftly and often emits “ga-ga-ga” calls while in flight. Its diet mainly consists of fruits, seeds, and plant materials, with a particular fondness for pine cones, berries, and grains. The breeding season is from May to July. It is the largest parrot species in China. Once widely distributed, its range has significantly shrunk due to deforestation, and it is now only found in Guangxi, Sichuan, eastern Tibet, and Yunnan in China, with very small numbers. Internationally, it is also seen only in northern India.

The people of Mangba believe that the continued existence and reproduction of the Great Pied Parrots here is a blessing bestowed upon them by nature. Having coexisted with the villagers for generations, these birds have developed deep bonds with the community. To better protect these lovely creatures, in 2001, after collective discussion among the villagers, two key measures were decided upon: first, to establish a Parrot Protection Association, formulate village regulations, create informational signboards, regulate public behavior, and further raise awareness about parrot conservation—allowing the parrots to live and breed freely without human disturbance; second, to prohibit the random felling of Simao pines and large banyan trees, and to craft dozens of bird nests mimicking natural forms to create a favorable ecological environment for the parrots to thrive.

A few years ago, a young man from the village, tempted by outsiders and lured by money, secretly sold two adorable baby parrots one quiet night. When the villagers learned of this, his actions became a topic of discussion and criticism among everyone, young and old. Faced with strong public pressure, the young man had no choice but to buy the parrots back. This incident became the most vivid and real-life cautionary tale for parrot conservation.

The harmonious coexistence between the Mangba Brown people and the Great Pied Parrots is a concrete manifestation of the unity between humans and nature, and also one of the most vivid outcomes of the “Colorful Yunnan · Simao Conservation Action” carried out in Simao District.