Four people have been arrested after police in Paraguay rescued 211 protected parrots which had been taken from remote forests.

Veterinarian Carlos Britos, of Paraguay's environmental ministry, identified the rescued birds as blue-fronted Amazon parrots, whose scientific name is Amazona aestiva.

He said many were still juveniles and had been taken from their nests. They are being cared for by government biologists in a national park, and will be returned to the wild once they can fly.

Blue-fronted Amazons are among the parrots most commonly kept as house pets.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature says more than 400,000 of them have been caught in the wild and traded. But stealing wild animals and plants is a crime in Paraguay, punishable by up to eight years in prison.