Two Loros Reales and a Witness Oak

It was a sweltering afternoon at the Fundación Loros reserve when Omar Enrique Berdugo Cabeza noticed something stirring in the high branches of an oak. Two Loros Reales — that species of blazing green plumage that grows harder to find with each passing year — had emerged from their shelter to breathe the clean air of late afternoon. Unhurried, untroubled, like creatures who know their territory well. Omar watched them from below, silent. He saw them move between the branches, stretch, draw in that February heat with the quiet ease that belongs only to those who feel truly at home. Then, as calmly as they had appeared, they went back inside. The nest in the oak was waiting. That moment reminded Omar of why he supports the installation of artificial nests fitted with predator-proof panels: so that there may be more oaks like that one, more peaceful homecomings, more pairs who step out for a breath of air and find their refuge intact upon returning. It is the steady, patient work of field monitoring that makes it possible to know — with certainty — that the Loros Reales still nest here.