Blue-throated Macaw

KEY FACTS

KEY FACTS

  • LATIN NAME
    Ara glaucogularis
  • BIOME
    Tropical Forests
  • CLASS
    Birds
  • ORDER
    Bird
  • CONSERVATION STATUS
    Critically Endangered

COME AND FIND ME AT..

South American Habitat

About the Macaw

Fota Wildlife Park is home to Blue-throated Macaws, there are at least 17 species of Macaw. The bird varies in height between one metre (Hyacinth macaw) and 30 cms (Red-shouldered macaw), and is a New World member of the Parrot family.

Macaws have large, strong and curved beaks as well as powerful and agile toes that grasp like human hands. Loud, screeching and squawking voices make its presence known in dense forest and they are intelligent, curious creatures that like to interact with others in its group as well as Mankind.

Habitat

The Macaw hails from the tropical rainforests of Central and South America.

Wild Notes

The Macaw forms a lifelong bond with its mate and lives within flocks of between ten and 30 individuals, groups that provide the bird with protection from predators. Its diet consists mainly of fruit, nuts and seeds and, in the wild, it forages over a wide range in order to eat.

The female lays between two and three eggs within a tree cavity and then incubates the eggs for about 28 days. The chicks fledge from the nest after about 90 days and leave their parents completely after about a year.

Conservation

Although some species of Macaw are listed as ‘Least Concern’ in the wild because of the large range it currently inhabits, several species of the bird are already extinct and its numbers are on the decline.

Did You Know?

A Macaw’s beak is so strong it can easily crush and open a Brazil nut or a human knuckle! The Red-fronted Macaw, meanwhile, can fly at up to 60kph and even travel during a sandstorm. Most species of Macaw also visit clay river banks and cliffs in the wild in an effort to consume the additional minerals that it requires in its diet.

The Fota Connection.

The Park’s Macaws are housed in the South American pen, which is located near the African Savannah. While other Macaw species have bred at Fota in the past, there haven’t been any young hatched in recent years.


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