Exotic Parrots Return to Cook Islands

Rimitara lorikeet is seen in this undated on the island of Atiu in Cook Islands after it disappeared there more than 200 years ago. Some 27 of the birds were caught recently on the French Polyesnian island of Rimitara and transferred to Atiu. The highly-colored birds are expected to start breeding on their new home island about now, the Southern Hemisphere spring. Some 100 years ago, the Queen of Rimitara Island in French Polynesia imposed a tapu (taboo) that locals say saved the last naturally occurring population of one of the Pacific's most beautiful parrots. The royal tapu protected the birds and prevented them being caught and removed from their island home. (AP Photo/Phil Bender)

(AP) -- Two centuries after a dazzlingly feathered parrot called the Rimitara lorikeet disappeared from the Cook Islands, a breeding colony of the birds has been re-established with the help of the islands' royalty.

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