Sombrerito Flies with One Eye

A few weeks ago, Sombrerito — the Amazonian parrot tagged B12 — arrived at the Fundación Loros facilities with a wound that would change him forever: he had lost an eye, most likely in a fight. What followed were days of intensive care, of uncertainty about whether he would ever be able to return to the open air with any semblance of a dignified life. Yesterday, we released him. And this morning, Omar headed out with the camera and found him flying. Not only that — Sombrerito arrived at the uvital in the company of B11 and a third companion, perched on a wooden beam with all the ease of someone who has nowhere to be, and then lifted off again into the tropical vegetation surrounding the reserve. The photographs say everything. A one-eyed parrot, free, among his companions, with no visible sign that life owes him any explanation. For us, that image — Sombrerito perched calmly, his little B12 band right where it belongs — is worth more than any recovery report ever written.