Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Blue macaws are na­tive to the neotrop­ics. The ge­o­graphic range of blue macaws is from lower Cen­tral Amer­ica to about halfway down the South Amer­i­can con­ti­nent and is con­cen­trated south of the Ama­zon River. (Grz­imek, 1972; Rid­g­ley, 1980)

• Biogeographic Regions
• neotropical
  • native

Habi­tat

An­odor­hynchus hy­acinthi­nus prefers semi-open habi­tats. These are usu­ally forests which have a dry sea­son that pre­vents the growth of ex­ten­sive, tall, closed-canopy trop­i­cal for­est. Blue macaws live in a va­ri­ety of habi­tats, in­clud­ing de­cid­u­ous wood­land, cer­rado and palm groves, and the palm-Sa­van­nas of the Pan­tanal. The Pan­tanal is a par­tic­u­larly im­por­tant habi­tat for the macaws, pro­vid­ing a large, lush oasis in south­ern Brazil. (Munn, 1989/90)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• forest
• mountains

• Wetlands
• swamp

• Other Habitat Features
• riparian

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

As the largest of all par­rots, blue macaws are 95 to 100 cm long (37.5 to 39.5 inches), al­though half that length is tail. They weigh ap­prox­i­mately 3.5 pounds (1,200 to 1,700 g) and their wingspans are from 117 to 127 cm. Typ­i­cally macaws do not have feath­ers in the area sur­round­ing the eyes and on fairly large areas on the side of the head. An­odor­hynchus hy­acinthi­nus, how­ever, has only a small ring around the eye and around the base of the lower mandible which are bare, re­veal­ing promi­nent rich yel­low skin. Blue macaws are a uni­form ul­tra­ma­rine blue, which is rich and glossy. The beak of blue macaws is mas­sive, black and hooked. Like most par­rots, the beak is used as a third foot to grasp onto trees, which is help­ful for climb­ing. They have short, sturdy legs, which are use­ful for hang­ing side­ways and up­side-down. Male and fe­male blue macaws are alike. (Rid­g­ley, 1989)

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic
• bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• sexes alike

• Range mass

  1200 to 1700 g

  42.29 to 59.91 oz

• Range length

  95 to 100 cm

  37.40 to 39.37 in

• Range wingspan

  117 to 127 cm

  46.06 to 50.00 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Al­though blue macaws breed year round, they have a low re­pro­duc­tive rate; from 100 pairs, about 7 to 25 off­spring are pro­duced per year. This is coun­ter­acted by their longevity; they have lifes­pans which last decades. Blue macaws are monog­a­mous, usu­ally re­main­ing with one part­ner for their en­tire life. (Col­lar, et al., 1992)

• Mating System
• monogamous

Blue macaws nest in tree cav­i­ties and cliffs, de­pend­ing on their lo­ca­tion. They will nest in dead and liv­ing tree hol­lows usu­ally 4 to 14 m off the ground. Al­though cop­u­la­tion oc­curs year round, nest­ing usu­ally oc­curs dur­ing the wet sea­son, which last from No­vem­ber to April south of the equa­tor. Macaws typ­i­cally lay one to two eggs per clutch in a two-day in­ter­val. The in­cu­ba­tion pe­riod is be­tween 25 to 28 days. Dur­ing this pe­riod the fe­male spends about 70 per­cent of her time with the eggs and is fed by the male. Al­though the eggs are preyed upon by jays, coatis and skunks, among oth­ers, the hatch­ing rate is 90 per­cent suc­cess­ful. The chicks fledge in 13 weeks, but the fledg­lings stay with the fe­male for about 18 months. They reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity in 6 to 10 years. (Col­lar, et al., 1992; Scheep­ers, 2001)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• year-round breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  Blue macaws breed year round.

• Breeding season

  Although copulation occurs year round, most nesting takes place between November and April, during the wet season.

• Range eggs per season

  1 to 2

• Average eggs per season

  2

• Range time to hatching

  25 to 28 days

• Average fledging age

  13 weeks

• Average time to independence

  18 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  6 to 10 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  6 to 10 years

Typ­i­cally, it takes A. hy­acinthi­nus eggs 25 to 28 days to hatch. If both eggs hatch, the mother rears only one. The mother pro­vides the al­tri­cial nestling with food and pro­tec­tion. After a week the male joins the fe­male in feed­ing. Food for the chick con­sists of re­gur­gi­tated par­tially-di­gested crop con­tents. The time to fledg­ing is about 13 weeks, and the birds are in­de­pen­dent after 18 months. (Col­lar, et al., 1992)

• Parental Investment
• no parental involvement
• altricial
• pre-hatching/birth
  • protecting
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female
• pre-independence
  • provisioning
    • male
    • female
  • protecting
    • male
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The lifes­pan of An­odor­hynchus hy­acinthi­nus is un­known, partly be­cause it lives so long. The es­ti­mate is around 50 years.

• Range lifespan
  Status: wild

  38.8 (high) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  50 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  38.8 years

  AnAge

Be­hav­ior

Blue macaws are very so­cial birds. They per­form court­ing, cop­u­la­tion and bond­ing ac­tiv­i­ties through­out the year, and are usu­ally seen in pairs. They are most ac­tive from morn­ing to mid-af­ter­noon and fly in groups of two to eight to and from the feed­ing grounds. After feed­ing they re­turn home to their roost­ing trees around sun­set and spend the night there. Blue macaws are often de­scribed as gen­tle gi­ants, with gen­tle and lov­ing per­son­al­i­ties. (Col­lar, et al., 1992; Scheep­ers, 2001)

• Key Behaviors
• flies
• diurnal
• motile
• social

Home Range

The home range of blue macaws largely de­pends on the lo­ca­tion of their food source. Some choose not to stray far, oth­ers travel leg­n­thy dis­tances every day to their feed­ing grounds. They usu­ally travel in large groups.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Blue macaws have harsh, gut­teral calls which they often emit when alarmed. (Munn, 1989/90)

• Communication Channels
• acoustic

• Perception Channels
• visual
• tactile
• acoustic
• chemical

Food Habits

Blue macaws are equipped with large beaks which they use to crack open the shells of nuts. These nuts are usu­ally quite hard, so the bird first files down the thick­ness of the shell in one area with its beak, and then breaks it cleanly in half. Their large hooked bill is no­tably ef­fi­cient when com­pared to other macaws. Blue macaws feed on 8 species pf palm nuts, which are rich in nu­tri­ents and fat. Two of the species of plam trees are Acro­co­mia ia­siopatha and As­try­ocaryun tu­cuma. They are largely de­pen­dent on palm nuts, but will oc­ca­sion­ally feed on small seeds, palm sprouts and snails. Most of the feed­ing oc­curs on the ground, though macaws use their abil­ity to climb to pick palm nuts from clus­ters within the trees. Blue macaws have also been known to eat palm nuts that have passed through the bowls of cat­tle. (Grz­imek, 1972; Scheep­ers, 2001)

• Primary Diet
• herbivore
  • granivore

• Animal Foods
• mollusks

• Plant Foods
• seeds, grains, and nuts

Pre­da­tion

The pri­mary preda­tors of blue macaws are egg preda­tors: jays and crows (fam­ily Corvi­dae), coatis (genus Nasua), tou­cans (fam­ily Ram­phasti­dae), and skunks (sub­fam­ily Mephiti­nae). (Col­lar, et al., 1992)

• Known Predators

  • jays and crows (Corvidae)
  • coatis (Nasua)
  • toucans (Ramphastidae)
  • skunks (Mephitinae)

Ecosys­tem Roles

An­odor­hynchus hy­acinthi­nus serves an im­por­tant role in its ecosys­tem by dis­pers­ing seeds and nuts through­out its ter­ri­tory.

• Ecosystem Impact
• disperses seeds

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Blue macaws are eco­nom­i­cally im­por­tant to hu­mans in that in­ter­est in the bird sparks the tourism in­dus­try in Brazil. They are also part of the in­ter­na­tional live-bird trade. Cap­ture and ex­port of wild birds (al­though il­le­gal in Brazil) has caused a sharp de­cline in the pop­u­la­tion. (Rid­g­ley, 1980)

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade
• ecotourism

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are no known ad­verse af­fects of A. hy­acinthi­nus on hu­mans.

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Blue macaws live in areas, such as swamps, that are not cov­eted for agri­cul­tural use. How­ever, the pop­u­la­tion has been steadily de­clin­ing for many years. Un­for­tu­nately, blue macaws live in an area of Brazil that is being rapidly de­vel­oped. The de­struc­tion of their habi­tat, as well as hunt­ing and trap­ping by hu­mans, has sub­stan­tially re­duced their num­bers. Long term con­ser­va­tion ef­forts have been made, and now some land own­ers liv­ing in the Patanal do not allow trap­pers on their prop­erty. (Rid­g­ley, 1980)

A. hy­acinthi­nus is cur­rently listed in Ap­pen­dix I of CITES, a de­ci­sion which was made in July of 1987. They are clas­si­fied as en­dan­gered on the IUNC Red List.

• IUCN Red List

  Endangered
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Endangered
  More information

• CITES

  Appendix I

Con­trib­u­tors

Alaine Cam­field (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Emily Hagan (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (ed­i­tor), Mu­seum of Zo­ol­ogy, Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Col­lar, N., L. Gon­zaga, N. Krabbe, A. Madroño Nieto, L. Naranjo, T. Parker, D. Wege. 1992. "Entry on the Hy­acinth Macaw in Threat­ened Birds of the Amer­i­cas" (On-line). Ac­cessed April 14, 2004 at http://​www.​bluemacaws.​org/​hywild10.​htm.

Grz­imek, B. 1972. Grz­imek's An­i­mal Life En­cy­clo­pe­dia. New York: Van Nos­trand Rein­hold Com­pany.

Munn, C. 1989/90. Re­port on the Hy­acinth Macaw. Audubon Wildlife Re­port: 405-419.

Rid­g­ley, R. 1989. First Among Par­rots - Hy­acinth Macaws in the wild. Birds In­ter­na­tional, 1(1).

Rid­g­ley, R. 1980. The Cur­rent Dis­tri­b­u­tion and Sta­tus of Main­land Neotrop­i­cal Par­rots. Con­ser­va­tion of New World Par­rots: 237-238. Ac­cessed April 15, 2004 at http://​www.​bluemacaws.​org/​hywild16.​htm.

Scheep­ers, G. 2001. "Hy­acinth Macaw" (On-line). Thomas­river Aviaries. Ac­cessed April 14, 2004 at http://​www.​thomasriver.​co.​za.