English           -             Blue and Yellow Macaw

Portuguese   -              Arara-canindé      

Latin              -              Ara ararauna     

The Blue and Yellow Macaw, also known as the Blue-and-Gold Macaw, is a large South American parrot. They are often considered to be one of the most intelligent and most beautiful of all the parrot species.

Blue and Yellow Macaws have blue wings and tail, black chin, golden underparts and a green forehead. Their beaks are black and very strong for crushing nuts. The naked face is white, turning pink in excited birds and lined with small black feathers. There is little variation in plumage across the range. Some birds have a more orangey or ‘butterscotch’ underside colour, particularly on the breast. The Blue and Yellow Macaw measures around 91 cm in length from the tip of its head to the tip of its tail making them one of the biggest parrots in the world. It has a wing span of 114 cm and weighs around  to 1.3 kgs. They give a loud, guttural “rraa-aaar” or “kurr-raak”. These calls are uttered with quavering tone. Their shrill calls can be heard over long distances. The Blue and Yellow Macaw can live up to 60 years of age.

They are found in Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. There range extends slightly into Central America, where it is restricted to Panama. They live in seasonally flooded forests, mainly at edges, also in gallery forests, along streams, savannahs with scattered trees and palm swamps. It can also be found in deciduous woodlands away from water. It can live from lowlands to 500 metres in most parts of the range, but occasionally to 1500 metres in Peru.

Blue and Yellow Macaw feeds on fruits or some parts of them, nuts, berries, blooms, leaves, and flowers of Combretum. Its favourite seeds come from Hura Crepitans trees. Blue-and-Yellow Macaw, as other macaws, eats clay and minerals on riverbanks. These macaws feed on several plant species, including toxic plants. To eat clay allows them to digest the poison contained in the fruits and seeds of these plants. 

The Blue and Yellow Macaw reaches breeding age when they are 3 to 4 years old. The male bird’s colour signals readiness for breeding. The brighter and bolder the colours, the better the chance of getting a mate. They are known to pair for life and live in small family groups. They nest high above the ground in cavities found in large, dead trees. The female typically lays two or three eggs. The female incubates the eggs for about 28 days. When the young hatch, they are blind and featherless. The strongest nestling take most of the food leaving the others nestlings to perish in the nest. The young Macaws do not develop their full plumage until they are at least 10 weeks old. The surviving chicks fledge from the nest about 97 days after hatching. They normally remain with their parents for several months before becoming independent. 

Blue and Yellow Macaws are popular pets, highly prized for their beautiful colours and intelligence. Unfortunately this has caused a decrease in their numbers in the wild due to illegal trapping for the pet trade. Although they are classed as “not threatened in the wild” due to their large range, the forests they live in are fast disappearing. This means smaller populations of this magnificent birds survive in the wild. The species range formerly included Trinidad, but it became extinct there by 1970 as a result of human activities. At this stage the Blue and Yellow Macaw  is considered as a species “of least concern”. As previously mentioned, the population trend is declining but not enough to reach vulnerable status but their status could easily change in the future.

Photos of the Blue and Yellow Macaws were taken at Parque das Arves - Foz do Iguacu - Parana.