One of the rarest birds in the world finds a city sanctuary in Hong Kong

HONG KONG (AP) — Critically endangered yellow-crested cockatoos found an unexpected sanctuary among Hong Kong ’s towering skyscrapers, but like their human neighbors they now face trouble finding a place to call home.

Native to Indonesia and East Timor, the snow-white birds, their crests flashing like yellow crowns, squawk through the urban parks of the Asian financial hub. They make up roughly 10% of the species' global wild population, which numbers only up to 2,000 mature birds.

Research shows the city’s cockatoo population has stagnated as the birds, which live in tree cavities, are losing natural nesting spaces in old trees due to typhoons and government tree trimming for public safety. That's adding to global pressures on cockatoos such as the illegal pet trade and climate change.

Hong Kong's conservationists have stepped in with a solution: installing artificial nest boxes that mimic these natural hollows.

Astrid Andersson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hong Kong who led the project, said a pair of birds already settled in a nest box her team fixed onto a tree on her campus, the city’s oldest university. She aims to install 10 boxes by year's end and ultimately boost that figure to 50 in the next few years across Hong Kong Island.

“And then they can continue to live in the city,” she said.

Once widespread across island chains from central to eastern Indonesia and East Timor, the yellow-crested cockatoo has vanished from many islands and clings to survival on others.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature says as much as 90% of the population is thought to have disappeared since 1978, mainly due to trapping for the pet trade.

Weak enforcement of a 1994 export ban by Indonesia has allowed the trade to persist, including targeting chicks. In 2015, Indonesian police arrested a man on suspicion of smuggling about 20 birds by stuffing them inside water bottles.

Deforestation from farming and logging is another problem. Indonesia lost 107,000 square kilometers (41,300 square miles) of its original tropical rainforest between 2002 and 2024 — an area about the size of Iceland — accounting for about a third of all tree cover loss during that time, according to Global Forest Watch.

Climate change is making things worse. Rising temperatures dry out forests, leaving them more vulnerable to fires. Many birds live on volcanic islands, where eruptions can spark wildfires in the parched landscapes.

“The fires are humongous,” said Bonnie Zimmermann, director of the Indonesian Parrot Project, a nonprofit organization.

The wild cockatoos in Hong Kong’s urban parks could be from escaped or released pets, Andersson said. One urban legend says they descended from pet birds released by a British governor before he surrendered to invading Japanese troops in 1941. Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to Chinese control in 1997.

Hong Kong bans commercial trading in wild-caught cockatoos, but allows captive-bred sales for operations registered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. However, there is no such breeding operation registered in the city.

In August, a three-month-old chick was priced at 14,000 Hong Kong dollars ($1,800) in the city’s bird market.

A 2017-2018 survey by Andersson found 33 cockatoos for sale, triple the number of birds imported since 2005. They could be from home breeding, trafficking from abroad or Hong Kong’s wild population, the university said in a statement.

Andersson has developed a forensic test to help distinguish between those who live in the wild and those bred in captivity, and she hopes it can be applied in the market one day.

Many Hong Kongers do not know the birds are critically endangered. Dreamy Cheung said she was unaware when she bought her pet, Mochi, in 2021 for 20,000 Hong Kong dollars ($2,570). She felt anxious after learning of her intelligent bird’s endangered status, especially given its missing identification leg ring and possible illegal origins.

“It's like taking away someone else’s baby,” she said.

In an emailed statement to The Associated Press, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department said the government was committed to protecting endangered species, with regular inspections at markets and shops. It has no record of cockatoo poaching in the past five years, but it will investigate any reports, it said.

It added that it will provide advice on bird conservation for any tree trimming that may affect wild birds.

Hong Kong's cockatoos symbolize how humans and wildlife can coexist in a highly urbanized environment, said Andersson. Local birds also may carry some distinct genetic lineages missing in their native range, helping to sustain their genetic diversity.

“Hopefully, Hong Kong’s population will be able to contribute to saving this species from extinction," she said.

Her team plans to use cameras installed inside the nest boxes to collect data about cockatoo reproductive behavior, a topic that has not been extensively studied.

Cockatoos squawked in the upper branches of a tree in a park in the city's Causeway Bay area as conservationist Harry Wong installed a wood chip-filled nesting box.

Wong tried a similar project a decade ago without success.

This time, watching cockatoos occupy a nest box at the University of Hong Kong just two months after it was installed, he was excited and surprised.

“We can create small things in the city that allow the animals who live here to coexist with us,” he said.

Associated Press journalists Aniruddha Ghosal in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Katie Tam and news assistant Elaine Lai in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

Dreamy Cheung feeds her domesticated yellow-crested cockatoo at a park in Hong Kong, on Aug. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Sticks are placed on the bottom of an artificial nest box for wild yellow-crested cockatoos in Victoria Park in Hong Kong, on Aug. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Astrid Andersson, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Hong Kong, adjusts an artificial nest box for wild yellow-crested cockatoos in Victoria Park in Hong Kong, on Aug. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A group of wild yellow-crested cockatoos perch on a tree in Victoria Park in Hong Kong, on Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

Conservationist Harry Wong climbs up to the tree to install an artificial nest box for wild yellow-crested cockatoos in Victoria Park in Hong Kong, on Aug. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

A wild yellow-crested cockatoo perches on a tree in Victoria Park in Hong Kong, on Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Chan Long Hei)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday in the first verdict from eight criminal trials over the martial law debacle that forced him out of office and other allegations.

Yoon was impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster.

The most significant criminal charge against him alleges that his martial law enforcement amounted to a rebellion, and the independent counsel has requested the death sentence in the case that is to be decided in a ruling next month.

Yoon has maintained he didn’t intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament obstructing his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoon’s decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule, charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses.

In Friday’s case, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Yoon for defying attempts to detain him, fabricating the martial law proclamation, and sidestepping a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting and thus depriving some Cabinet members who were not convened of their due rights to deliberate on his decree.

Judge Baek Dae-hyun said in the televised ruling that imposing “a grave punishment” was necessary because Yoon hasn’t shown remorse and has only repeated “hard-to-comprehend excuses.” The judge also restoring legal systems damaged by Yoon’s action was necessary.

Yoon’s defense team said they will appeal the ruling, which they believe was “politicized” and reflected “the unliberal arguments by the independent counsel.” Yoon’s defense team argued the ruling “oversimplified the boundary between the exercise of the president’s constitutional powers and criminal liability.”

Prison sentences in the multiple, smaller trials Yoon faces would matter if he is spared the death penalty or life imprisonment at the rebellion trial.

Park SungBae, a lawyer who specializes in criminal law, said there is little chance the court would decide Yoon should face the death penalty in the rebellion case. He said the court will likely issue a life sentence or a sentence of 30 years or more in prison.

South Korea has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since 1997 and courts rarely hand down death sentences. Park said the court would take into account that Yoon’s decree didn’t cause casualties and didn’t last long, although Yoon hasn’t shown genuine remorse for his action.

South Korea has a history of pardoning former presidents who were jailed over diverse crimes in the name of promoting national unity. Those pardoned include strongman Chun Doo-hwan, who received the death penalty at a district court over his 1979 coup, the bloody 1980 crackdowns of pro-democracy protests that killed about 200 people, and other crimes.

Some observers say Yoon will likely retain a defiant attitude in the ongoing trials to maintain his support base in the belief that he cannot avoid a lengthy sentence but could be pardoned in the future.

On the night of Dec. 3, 2024, Yoon abruptly declared martial law in a televised speech, saying he would eliminate “anti-state forces” and protect “the constitutional democratic order.” Yoon sent troops and police officers to encircle the National Assembly, but many apparently didn’t aggressively cordon off the area, allowing enough lawmakers to get into an assembly hall to vote down Yoon’s decree.

No major violence occurred, but Yoon's stunt caused the biggest political crisis in South Korea and rattled its diplomacy and financial markets. For many, his decree, the first of its kind in more than four decades in South Korea, brought back harrowing memories of past dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s, when military-backed leaders used martial law and emergency measures to deploy soldiers and tanks on the streets to suppress demonstrations.

After Yoon's ouster, his liberal rival Lee Jae Myung became president via a snap election last June. After taking office, Lee appointed three independent counsels to look into allegations involving Yoon, his wife and associates.

Yoon's other trials deal with charges like ordering drone flights over North Korea to deliberately inflame animosities to look for a pretext to declare martial law. Other charges accuse Yoon of manipulating the investigation into a marine’s drowning in 2023 and receiving free opinion surveys from an election broker in return for a political favor.

A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shouts slogans outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol waits for a bus carrying former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs as police officers stand guard outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A picture of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is placed on a board as supporters gather outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)