Vittorio Poggi poses for a picture at his balcony in Caracas

Vittorio Poggi poses for a picture at his balcony in Caracas April 10, 2015. In the 1970s, at the foot of the Caribbean mountain range flanking Caracas, a motorcycle-riding Italian immigrant turned heads for being inexplicably chased by a macaw nicknamed “Pancho.” The young man, Vittorio Poggi, was an animal lover who was then inspired to breed the birds en masse and release them across the fertile valley that cradles Venezuela’s gritty capital. Forty years later, hundreds – perhaps thousands – of descendants of those long-tailed birds color Caracas’ sky, giving its five million residents a moment of quiet respite from chaos and crime. Picture taken April 10, 2015. REUTERS/Marco Bello