Greenwing Macaw
Ara chloroptera
South America
 

Measurements

Body length: 90cm
Weight: 1.2 to 1.7 kg

Diet

Tropical forest fruits, nuts and seeds, flowers, leaves, and stems of plants, and sources of protein like insects and snails.

Identification

The green-winged macaw is a large parrot covered with mostly red plumage. The wing and tail feathers are blue and green, hence its name. This macaw has a white, naked face, striped with small red feathers. The beak is strongly hooked and the feet are zygodactylous (2 toes that point forward and 2 toes that point backward).

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.

 

  

Distribution & Habitat

Found in tropical rainforests, savannas, and mangroves of South America

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.

Conservation

Although found in many part of the continent, the green-winged macaw is extinct in some parts of its range, including Argentina. Like nearly all the macaws, the greenwing macaw is threatened due to loss of habitat and birds taken for the pet trade.