Blue and Gold Macaws

... about me

Ara ararauna

Blue and Yellow Macaw

Description: general plumage rich blue; forehead green; bare lores and cheek area whitish and traversed with several black feather-lines joining at black throat area; ear-coverts, sides of throat, upper breast, abdomen, under tail-coverts and under wing-coverts orange-yellow; tail upperside blue,underside olive-yellow; bill blackish; iris pale yellowish; feet dark grey.


Immatures with shorter tail and dark brown iris.


Length: 86 cm (34 ins).


Distribution: eastern Panama south across northwest Colombia in Magdalena valley and east of Andes from eastern Colombia and Venezuela through Ecuador and Peru as well as Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana, Trinidad and Brazil to Bolivia, Paraguay and northern Argentina.


Habitat: rain forest, tall and dense secondary vegetation, open woodland as well as marshland and savannah with palms and other trees in tropical zone to 500 m (1,650 ft), in localities to 1,500 m (5,000 ft).


Status: usually most common large macaw species in areas with original habitat; disappeared in localities particularly in Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia; main causes habitat destruction, trapping, trade and hunting.


Habits: usually in pairs, small family groups or flocks of up to 20 birds; gatherings of several hundred on roosting and feeding trees as well as clay banks; visible particularly during morning and evening flights to and from roosting trees; pairs and groups then very conspicuous because of bright plumage and regular calls during flight; pairs clearly identifiable within group; often found on feeding trees and clay banks with Scarlet Macaws (Ara macao) and Green-winged Macaws (Ara chloroptera); there very cautious; waits until sure no predator nearby; very difficult to detect in foliage of tall trees; perches quietly there; presence often only betrayed by falling food remains; flies off loudly screeching if threatened; shy near settlements; flight fairly swift and direct; often only few metres above treetops; slow, powerful wingbeats typical; calls harsh rraa-aa or raucous croaking.


Natural diet: variety of ripe and unripe fruits (e.g Mauritia vinifera, Astrocaryum sp., Bactris sp., Maximilianea), mango, nuts (brazils, various palm nuts), seeds (e.g Hura crepitans), berries, flowers and vegetable matter foraged in trees; probably also insects and their larvae; almost daily flights in morning and evening to ccollpas (clay banks) to feed on mineral-rich soil; this believed to neutralize toxic content of unripe fruits.

I feed Brown's Tropical Carnival Macaw and Zupreem Pellets