In chatting with our profile subject this week, Willie “Penny” Ebanks, he brought up a very good point - the problem with parrots.

Mr. Ebanks shares the plight of parrots with other farmers throughout the Cayman Islands.

Parrots love fresh fruit and are well known to snip mangos and other fruits from their tree limbs. If a farmer isn’t vigilant, a flock of parrots can strip a mango tree of its fruit in a matter of minutes.

Nobody can deny that the Cayman Parrot is one of the most beautiful bird’s on the planet. They mate for life and use the same nesting areas again and again.

They’ve graced the postage stamps of the Cayman Islands and are the national bird of these beloved isles.

The National Trust has deemed the Cayman Parrot an endangered species; something we witnessed first hand with the passing of Hurricane Ivan. Even the farmers probably missed the raucous squawking of the birds when droves of them were driven away by the storm in 2004.

But now they are back in full force.

When the parrots were determined endangered, it would appear - at least to Mr. Ebanks and other farmers - that everyone was consulted about their status except for the farmers.

Mr. Ebanks would like to see some kind of conservation programme enacted for the Cayman Parrot, similar to what was done for the Blue Iguana.

The National Trust for the Cayman Islands’ Salina Reserve and Mastic Reserve on Grand Cayman, and the Brac Parrot Reserve on Cayman Brac, all provide some protected habitat for parrots. The Central Mangrove Wetland’s fringe of Black Mangrove woodland is the single most important breeding habitat for the Grand Cayman Parrot.

But that doesn’t stop them from pestering farmers.

Neither Mr. Ebanks nor any of the other farmers wants to destroy the parrots; they want to see them kept safely from crops.

Most farmers already know that putting a scarecrow in the orchard won’t bother parrots one bit. And gone are the days when you could catch parrots and ship them to the United States to sell.

Maybe it’s time for the farmers, the National Trust and others interested in the welfare of the Cayman Parrot to sit down and try to come up with a win-win solution for all.