Balloon racer to pay $121,000 for scaring parrots to death

A pair of hyacinth macaws, similar to those pictured, were among the victims of the tragic incident. Photo / 123RF

A hot air balloonist must pay €68,000 ($121,000) in compensation to a bird collector after he scared three of his rare parrots to death during a balloon race.

He had fired his main burner just 50 metres from the birds' cage and the noise from the blast frightened the parrots so much they died of stress, a court in the Dutch province of North Brabant heard.

In his defence, the balloonist said he had to fire the burner in order to stay airborne during the March 2017 race, but those claims did not convince the court at the end of a three-and-a-half-year legal battle in the Netherlands.

The bird collector also lost a yellow-naped amazon or yellow-naped parrot to shock following the ballooning incident. Photo / Getty

A 2018 hearing had established the parrots, a pair of hyacinth macaws and a yellow-naped amazon, had died from shock - but not which balloon in the race was responsible for their deaths.

Evidence presented to the court proved it was a ballooning company from the nearby town of Schijndel in the south of the Netherlands that had come closest by far to the cage.

Organisers of balloon races typically mark places where animals are on maps for the balloonists, Omroep Brabant, a local broadcaster, said, and the parrots were most likely marked on the map.

"That is where things went wrong," said Bram van Loosbroek, a balloonist who was not involved in the incident.

"Balloonists are never reckless. It's our job and we have to make sure we can continue to do it. And we can only do that if we take the presence of animals on the ground into account,' he added.

The court ordered the accused balloonist to pay the collector and his son a total of €68,000 compensation for the dead parrots, the Dutch News website reported on Wednesday.

The deceased parrots included a €40,000 pair of hyacinth macaws and a yellow-naped amazon worth €1250.

The compensation package includes €14,000 for the sale of any young the parrots might have produced.