In celebration of National Bird Day 2015, Barry Kent MacKay, Senior Program Associate for Born Free USA and lifelong bird enthusiast, is writing a special eight-part blog series in December and January where he will describe some interesting avian species. Below is the fourth installment.
There are 17 species of parrots called macaws. There used to be several more, but those found in the West Indies were exterminated, including the beautiful Cuban red macaw, gone by 1864, and the Saint Croix macaw, lost even earlier and now known only from subfossil bones found on Saint Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands and central Puerto Rico. The Dominican macaw is only known by virtue of being written about by an 18th century naturalist, and the Martinique macaw is similarly problematic, thought to have perhaps once existed because of a 17th century description of an orange-bellied macaw found only on that island. [teaserbreak] One other species, the Spix’s macaw—one of four macaws mostly all blue in color—has been wiped out in the wild, and there is now a desperate attempt being made by conservationists in the species’ native Brazil and a solid conservation effort in Bolivia to breed captive specimens with a view to eventually release them back into the wild.
Another all-blue macaw, the Glaucous, is probably extinct.
Of the remaining 16 species, all found in either Central or South America, perhaps the best known are the largest species most often seen in the pet trade and in zoos: the Scarlet, the Blue and Gold, the Blue-throated, the Green-winged, the Military, the Great Green, the Red-fronted, and the Chestnut-fronted macaws—all marked by a patchwork of bright colors such as green, blue, and yellow. Plus, one of the four species that are entirely blue in color is the species featured here: the Hyacinth macaw.
First, some good news… maybe. The Hyacinth macaw has been downlisted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) from “endangered” to “vulnerable,” on the grounds that the speed of decline in wild populations has perhaps not been as rapid as once thought. But, there has been a decline. And, while no one knows how many Hyacinth macaws still live in the wild, the number is estimated to be in the low thousands, spread over a very large section of the middle of South America. It is listed as endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
The extremely similar, slightly smaller Lear’s macaw is undoubtedly seriously endangered, and has a much more restricted range, being confined to a small section of Brazil, where it has legal protection.
The slightly smaller and highly similar (but more greenish-blue) Glaucous macaw is probably gone. It was found very locally over a wide range in southern Paraguay, northeastern Uruguay, and Brazil from Paraná state southward to northern Argentina—but, sadly, it has only been reliably seen twice in the 20th century (the last time in the early 1960s). Unconfirmed sightings and rumors persist of there being a few left. While habitat destruction, especially of what may have been its major food source—the nuts of the Yatay palm—might have played a role in its loss, it appears to have been mainly a 19th century victim of the unregulated trade in parrots for exotic pets. There is still viable habitat, empty of the birds, although conservationists still search for it.
So, of the four all-blue macaws, one, the Spix’s, is extinct in the wild, and it is uncertain if captive specimens can be bred and their progeny ultimately released; the Glaucous is almost certainly entirely extinct; the Lear’s is endangered; and only the Hyacinth survives, albeit in smaller numbers than ever before.
In fact, all macaw species have declined—even the small ones—and some others are endangered. Although the Hyacinth macaws have been given local protection, there has been massive illegal trade with 10,000 of them: more than three times the current estimated number of wild birds, taken from the wild in the 1980s. While they are legally protected, there is continued poaching of wild birds.
One grave concern of conservationists is that, as worrisome as the removal of wild Hyacinths is for that species, it would be even more disastrous if some very similar Lear’s macaws were also found and captured. In fact, precisely because they are so rare, the Lear’s has been targeted by poachers, and is known to have been illegally traded, with buyers willing to pay many thousands of dollars for just one.
Less-rare large captive macaws too often show up at shelters, because once the novelty wears off, they can be very difficult to adequately care for. While they can be very affectionate with humans whom they know and like, they also have a dangerously powerful bite. They can do considerable damage by chewing. And, being parrots, their intense need for stimulation and attention can lead to self-mutilation and other signs of mental illness. They require a huge amount of room to attain proper flying exercise, given that wild birds may fly for many kilometers over the tops of jungle trees.
A few Hyacinth macaws are hunted for food, or for their feathers (used for ornamentation). While it is true that the aboriginal hunt for meat, feathers, or pets is not the cause of their endangerment, the sad fact is that, because they are endangered, any removal of such individuals for indigenous use puts them all the more at risk. But, by far, the greater risk is the destruction of habitat, including the loss of much Amazonian forest habitat, to generate hydro-electricity or to create vast cattle ranches. Some ranchers are starting to take steps to protect the birds, even providing nesting boxes, which the big parrots will use.
It is probably too late to save three of the four large, blue macaws. Maybe, just maybe, we can save the fourth: the Hyacinth. Shame on us all if we fail.