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Local rainforest exhibit and aviary, Moody Gardens in Galveston, TX has several Macaws roaming the facility. Beautiful birds.
Macaws are king-sized members of the parrot family and have typical parrot features. Their large, strong, curved beaks are designed to crush nuts and seeds. Their strong, agile toes are used like hands to grasp things. Loud, screeching and squawking voices help make their presence known in dense rain forests. They are also famous for their bright colors, which seem bold and conspicuous to us but actually blend in well with the green leaves, red and yellow fruits, and bluish shadows of the forest homes. - See more at: animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/macaw#sthash.brGqUpUQ.dpuf
The Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) is a large, red, yellow and blue South American parrot, a member of a large group of Neotropical parrots called macaws. It is native to humid evergreen forests of tropical South America. Range extends from extreme south-eastern Mexico to Amazonian Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela and Brazil in lowlands up to 500 m (1,640 ft) (at least formerly) up to 1,000 m (3,281 ft). It has suffered from local extinction through habitat destruction and capture for the parrot trade, but locally it remains fairly common. Formerly it ranged north to southern Tamaulipas. It can still be found on the island of Coiba. It is the national bird of Honduras.
Santa Barbara Zoo. California.
TAXONOMY
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Psittaciformes (psittacines or parrots, cockatoos, and relatives)
Superfamily Psittacoidea (true parrots)
Family: Psittacidae
Subfamily: Arinae
Genus/species: Ara ararauna
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS: A large parrot ultramarine blue color on their backs and wings, yellow under parts, green forehead feathers, and green tips on the end of their wings. Their under-wing coverts and breast are yellow-orange and they have black beaks, throat, and legs. Their eyes are yellow and their facial area consists of bare white skin with several black feather lines around their eyes.
Length 32-36 inches with a wing span of 41 to 45 inches.
DISTRIBUTION/HABITAT: Eastern Panama in Central America south across northern South America, extending to Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay. Can be found throughout subtropical and tropical forests, woodlands, and savannas nesting high in trees to avoid predation.
DIET IN THE WILD: Mostly fruits and seeds. They use their strong beaks they break open nut shells and seeds. Consuming riverbank clay detoxifies unripe seed toxins. Dispersing seeds is important to the rainforest.
REPRODUCTION: Blue and Gold Macaws are monogamous mating for life. Females lay 2 to 3 eggs and incubate them for 24 to 28 days, after which the young hatch blind and featherless. Fledglings become independent in 3 months.
LONGEVITY: Up to 50 years while their breeding age ranges from 30 to 35 years.
PREDATORS: A. ararauna are attacked while in flight by harpy eagles (Harpia harpyja), hawk eagles (Nisaetus cirrhatus) and orange-breasted falcons (Falco deiroleucus).
CONSERVATION: IUCN: Least Concern (LC) due to their large geographic range.
REMARKS: Their beaks are extremely powerful with a bite force up to 200 lbs per square inch. Beaks are used as ‘third foot’. Feet are “Zygodactyl” (2 toes oriented forward, 2 toes oriented backward) are used for climbing, holding food.
These birds are in the parrot family, and are referred to as Psittacines. They are known for their extraordinary coloration, intelligence, social behavior and being very vocal
Rainforest bolla
References
California Academy of Sciences Rainforest 2017
Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org/accounts/Ara_ararauna/
Encyclopedia of Life eol.org/pages/1177961/details
IUCN Red List animaldiversity.org/accounts/Ara_ararauna/
Ron's flickr www.flickr.com/photos/cas_docents/sets/72157608454346681/...
Ron's Wordpress Shortlink wp.me/p1DZ4b-14s
3-23-13, 9-7-13, 3-11-15, 4-6-17
Macaws are beautiful, brilliantly colored members of the parrot family.
Many macaws have vibrant plumage. The coloring is suited to life in Central and South American rain forests, with their green canopies and colorful fruits and flowers. The birds boast large, powerful beaks that easily crack nuts and seeds, while their dry, scaly tongues have a bone inside them that makes them an effective tool for tapping into fruits.
Macaws also have gripping toes that they use to latch onto branches and to grab, hold, and examine items. The birds sport graceful tails that are typically very long.
Scarlet Macaw (Ara Macao)
This is 39 of the 58 photos that were removed from Flickr. Since I use Flickr to store my favorite photos I am reposting them.
Please don't use this photo on websites, blogs or other media without my written permission. (c) Yago Veith www.yago1.com - Flickr Interesting
Many macaws have vibrant plumage. The coloring is suited to life in Central and South American rain forests, with their green canopies and colorful fruits and flowers. The birds boast large, powerful beaks that easily crack nuts and seeds, while their dry, scaly tongues have a bone inside them that makes them an effective tool for tapping into fruits
The Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) is a large, colorful macaw. It is native to humid evergreen forests in the American tropics. Range extends from extreme south-eastern Mexico to Amazonian Peru, Bolivia and Brazil in lowlands up to 500 m (at least formerly) up to 1,000 m. It has suffered from local extinction through habitat destruction and capture for the parrot trade, but locally it remains fairly common. Formerly it ranged north to southern Tamaulipas. It can still be found on the island of Coiba. It is the national bird of Honduras.
It is about 81 centimetres (32 in) long, of which more than half is the pointed, graduated tail typical of all macaws, though the Scarlet Macaw has a larger percentage of tail than the other large Macaws. The average weight is about 1 kilogram (2.2 lb). The plumage is mostly scarlet, but the rump and tail-covert feathers are light blue, the greater upper wing coverts are yellow, the upper sides of the flight feathers of the wings are dark blue as are the ends of the tail feathers, and the undersides of the wing and tail flight feathers are dark red with metallic gold iridescence. Some individuals may have green in the wings.
The Scarlet Macaw can live up to 50 years in captivity, although, a more typical lifespan is 30 to 40 years. They are unusually stubborn at times.
Scarlet Macaws eat mostly fruits, nuts and seeds, including large, hard seeds. A typical sighting is of a single bird or a pair flying above the forest canopy, though in some areas flocks can be seen. They may gather at clay licks.
This vibrantly colored macaw posed for me at the Happy Hollow Zoo in San Jose, CA.
Copyright: Sweezey Pictures - Ken Sweezey.
The Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) is a large, colorful macaw. It is native to humid evergreen forests in the American tropics. Range extends from extreme south-eastern Mexico to Amazonian Peru, Bolivia and Brazil in lowlands up to 500 m (at least formerly) up to 1,000 m. It has suffered from local extinction through habitat destruction and capture for the parrot trade, but locally it remains fairly common. Formerly it ranged north to southern Tamaulipas. It can still be found on the island of Coiba. It is the national bird of Honduras.
It is about 81 centimetres (32 in) long, of which more than half is the pointed, graduated tail typical of all macaws, though the Scarlet Macaw has a larger percentage of tail than the other large Macaws. The average weight is about 1 kilogram (2.2 lb). The plumage is mostly scarlet, but the rump and tail-covert feathers are light blue, the greater upper wing coverts are yellow, the upper sides of the flight feathers of the wings are dark blue as are the ends of the tail feathers, and the undersides of the wing and tail flight feathers are dark red with metallic gold iridescence. Some individuals may have green in the wings.
The Scarlet Macaw can live up to 50 years in captivity, although, a more typical lifespan is 30 to 40 years. They are unusually stubborn at times.
Scarlet Macaws eat mostly fruits, nuts and seeds, including large, hard seeds. A typical sighting is of a single bird or a pair flying above the forest canopy, though in some areas flocks can be seen. They may gather at clay licks.