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Echo Parakeets

The Echo Parakeet is the world's rarest parakeet. Since 1985, MWAF has been running a project to help wild parakeet's boost their numbers through captive breeding. In the early 1990s there were only about 20 to 25 echo parakeets in Mauritius. Today that figure has risen to about 40 but there needs to be 500 before it can be considered safe from extinction.

Other species such as Black Mauritius cuckoo shrike, Mauritius black bulbul, Mascarene paradise flycatcher and Mauritius Olive white eye are also threatened. Many of these species are already down to a couple of hundred birds.

The predominant species include many introduced songbirds, such as the little red Madagascar fody, the Indian Mynah with yellow beak and feet which make it look like it's just stepped out of a cartoon, the village weaver and the most common bird on Mauritius - the Red whiskered bulbul.

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