Tony Silva

Silva was born in Cuba in 1960 and immigrated to the United States with his parents at a young age.[2] His parents encouraged his love of birds as a hobby to keep him out of trouble, and he began studying, collecting, and breeding birds at age nine.[2] Silva became enamoured with parrots at age 10 when he discovered macaws at a local pet store.[3] When he was in his teens, he became further enamoured after receiving a parakeet.[4] Silva's aviary was originally financed by his father (who owned a company that manufactured television components), later supplemented by his own income from breeding parrots, judging parrot contests, and lecturing and writing about parrots.[4]

Silva began writing articles about birds at age 16, and by age 20 he had published his first book.[5] In 1981, Silva received the Silver Avy Award from the American Federation of Aviculture (AFA) for being the first in the U.S. to successfully breed slender-billed conures in captivity.[4][6] Silva was self-taught and did not attend university, but by age 25 he was already regarded as an authority on parrots and was respected as a successful breeder.[4][7] In 1986, Silva became midwestern regional vice-president of the AFA.[8] By 1987, Silva was operating a pet shop called Tropifauna just outside of Chicago.[9] In August 1989, Silva became Curator of Birds at Loro Parque, Tenerife, Canary Islands, the largest parrot park in the world—a position he held until January 1992.[10] Silva travelled extensively to study parrots in the wild,[3] and wrote hundreds of articles and multiple books about parrots.[2]

Silva was well known as a conservationist: he was an outspoken opponent of poaching and smuggling,[1] and he was involved in the early efforts to save the Spix's macaw.[11] Although highly respected among aviculturists, he was viewed with skepticism by the scientific community.[12] To some, Silva was merely a popularizer of others' ideas; to others, he was a "charlatan" who promoted wildlife conservation but who was suspected of engaging in illegal wildlife trade as early as 1980.[12]

Shortly after Silva started selling birds, he is believed to have begun supplementing his own birds with birds obtained on the black market, before eventually moving into smuggling.[13] Between at least 1986 and 1991, Silva conspired to smuggle protected birds valued at more than $1.3 million into the United States, neglecting to declare this income on his taxes.[14][15][16] While he was working at Loro Parque, Silva's mother ran the smuggling operation on his behalf.[14][15]

Birds were provided by co-conspirators in South America and shipped to Argentina or Mexico before being offloaded and smuggled into the United States.[17][18] Smuggled birds were often concealed by mixing them into a shipment of legally imported birds; Silva and his accomplices sneaked out the smuggled birds while the shipment was awaiting quarantine inspection.[14] Other birds were smuggled in plastic tubes, cardboard containers, and false-bottomed suitcases.[14][16][19] Many died during transport due to lack of food, water, and fresh air, and many more are thought to have died during capture.[2][19][20] Birds were transported to a Chicago-area motel room where they were surgically sexed and furnished with forged documents so they could be sold on the legal market.[10] Some of the birds were publicly advertised for sale in American Cage-bird Magazine.[10][21]

Operation Renegade

Silva was charged with smuggling at least 186 hyacinth macaws into the United States. At the time, each had a street value of $5,000–$12,000.[22]

In 1989, Silva became a person of interest in an international probe into bird smuggling known as "Operation Renegade" led by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).[16] Silva had been brought to the attention of authorities when convicted drug lord Mario Tabraue turned informant, claiming that he had received a shipment of 35 smuggled hyacinth macaws from Silva—which arrived sick and died soon thereafter.[16][5][19] In early 1990, Silva's friend Jim Mackman approached authorities after discovering that Silva had been smuggling protected birds.[14] Between 1990 and 1992, Mackman worked as an undercover informant for USFWS, secretly recording more than 100 conversations with Silva and his mother about their smuggling operation.[14] A search warrant executed on 16 January 1992 resulted in the seizure of 103 parrots, some or all of which were protected or illegally imported.[23] The search also revealed ledgers documenting illegal transactions and photographs of birds that had died en route to Silva; prosecutors alleged that Silva used these photographs to justify withholding payments to his supplier.[19][24]

Between November 1994 and April 1995, Silva was indicted on 20 charges, including charges of conspiracy to commit wildlife smuggling, as well as charges of tax evasion and perjury.[25][26][27] Silva was charged with smuggling at least 186 hyacinth macaws into the United States;[17] this comprised 5–10% of the global population.[28] Silva was also charged with illegally trafficking, transporting, or possessing a number of other birds such as crimson-bellied conures, Queen of Bavaria conures, vinaceous amazons, cockatoos, flamingos, and toco toucans.[17][24][28] He was suspected of having smuggled Spix's macaws, but this could not be proven.[10]

On 30 January 1996, Silva pleaded guilty as part of a plea bargain to one count of conspiracy to violate wildlife and customs laws and one count of filing a false income tax return.[15][22] He later attempted to reverse his guilty plea,[29] but this was not permitted by the court.[30][31] On 18 November 1996, Silva was convicted of smuggling more than 450 protected birds and seven monkeys into the United States.[32] He was sentenced to 82 months in prison, fined $100,000, and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service during a three-year probationary term after his prison sentence.[28][1][16] At the time, this was the severest-ever sentence for bird smuggling in the United States, imposed by the judge because of "great cruelty" inflicted upon the birds.[28][19]

Silva was incarcerated at FPC Duluth.[33] Appeals of his conviction were unsuccessful,[18][34] as was an attempt to sue the U.S. government for the value of the parrots confiscated during the 1992 search.[23] Silva was released in May 2002.[35]

Despite having pleaded guilty, Silva has publicly maintained his innocence, suggesting that he was importing birds to preserve the species rather than for financial gain.[19][24] He has also questioned the credibility of the witnesses against him, and he has alleged impropriety by the U.S. government in pursuit of his conviction.[36][37]

As of 2016, Silva was working for an energy company and was keeping birds as a hobby,[38] as well as operating a rescue centre.[3] He has continued to remain active in aviculture circles as a writer and lecturer.[19]

In 2017, Silva and colleagues proposed a new species of parrot: the blue-winged amazon.[39] The existence of the species has been questioned.[40]

This is an incomplete list of works by Tony Silva.

• Companion parrot
• International parrot trade

• Official website
• Tony Silva Aviculture on Facebook