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Blue
& Gold Macaw
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Ara
ararauna
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Northern
South America
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Measurements
Body length: 85cm
Weight: 1 to 1.3 kg
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Diet
Tropical forest
fruits, nuts and seeds, flowers, leaves, and stems of plants, and
sources of protein like insects and snails. |
Identification
Most of the upper
body, from the crown of the head reaching right down the back and
over the upperwings and tail, is blue, and so are the undertail coverts.
A black patch reaches around the undersides of the throat. The front
of the crown is greenish blue and the forehead green. The breast,
stomach, thighs, and the undersides of the body are of a rich yellow
color. |
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Behaviour
Macaws live
in pairs, family groups, or flocks of 10 to 30, which helps give
them protection from predators like large snakes and birds of prey.
They usually wake before dawn, then as a group, they fly up out
of the trees to journey to the day’s feeding grounds. They
often travel quite a long distance to a grove of trees with ripe
fruit. Shortly before or after dusk, they all take wing again to
return to their roosting site.
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Distribution & Habitat
They live in forests
and tall palms growing round
swamps or along water courses. Panama, southwards into South America,
extending to Bolivia, Paraguay, and Brazil. |
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Reproduction
Only the mother
does the incubating until the chicks hatch; the father is in charge
of bringing her food. Then both parents bring food to the chicks.
Macaw chicks are helpless and need their parents’ care until
they grow their flight feathers. The fledglings are clumsy at first
as they learn to fly, but once they get the hang of it, they start
flying with the adults to forage for food.
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Conservation
Habitat destruction,
trapping for the pet trade, and land development are all factors in
their decline in numbers. |
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