Red-and-green Macaw Ara chloropterus Scientific name definitions

The Red-and-Green Macaw is a colorful and recognizable parrot that can be found from eastern Panama through Colombia and from Venezuela east to Brazil and south to Paraguay and Bolivia. As the name suggests, the Red-and-Green Macaw is primarily red with green greater and median wing-coverts. This bird’s primaries are blue and has blue scattered throughout the rump and tail. Similar in appearance, the  Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) lacks the green wing-coverts of the Red-and-Green Macaw. The Red-and-Green Macaw is a resident of humid lowland evergreen forest and tropical deciduous forest, as well as occasionally savannas and llanos. These large parrots nest in holes in trees, as wells cavities in sandstone cliffs. Although this species is not globally threatened, Red-and-Green Macaws are targeted by the pet trade are in decline at the edges of their range.

90–95 cm; 1050–1708 g. Very similar to A. macao but green in wing instead of yellow, red feathered lines on bare face, flight-feathers above mostly pale blue, and larger, with bill proportionately larger. Immature has shorter tail and replaces black on bill with grey.

• Blue-and-yellow x Red-and-green Macaw (hybrid) Ara ararauna x chloropterus

E Panama through lowland Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas and Brazil S to Paraguay and W to E Ecuador, E Peru and NE Bolivia; formerly in N Argentina.

Humid lowland evergreen forest, generally up to 500 m, but also penetrating tropical deciduous forest and gallery woodland in savannas and llanos, and even undisturbed caatinga vegetation; favours hilly areas in Panama, where reaches to 1500 m.

No information. Birds are reportedly commoner in the dry season, Mato Grosso, and records in Argentina may always have been of wanderers.

Seeds of Jacaranda, Tetragastris, Sclerolobium, Hymenaea, Copaifera, Caryocar, Hevea, Eschweilera, Guarea, Abuta, Euterpe, Maximiliana, Micropholis, Sterculia, Spondias, Terminalia, Sapium, Croton, Parkia, pulp of Inga, Quararibea, Rheedia, Eperua, Dipteryx, Schwartzia, Borismene, Sorocea, Mauritia, fruits of Endopleura, Bertholletia, endosperm of Scheelea, arils of Virola, leaves  of Erythrina.

Loud and harsh calls similar to other large Ara macaws. Flight call a loud raucous “raah”, sounding less grating than A. macao. In flight, also more yelping calls. When perched, calls are quieter and more varied.

Nesting or prospection in Dec, Suriname; Nov–Apr in Peru; evidence of nesting from Jan in C Brazil. Nest in hole in tree, in E Peru preferred species being Dipteryx or Iriarthea; in sandstone cliffs at two sites in Bolivia, in natural cavity high in cliff, NE Brazil, and birds observed digging in river cliffs in S Brazil. Eggs 2–3. In one study, seven out of 16 nests successfully produced one or more young; of the 25 nestlings involved, ten (40%) fledged, nine (36%) died of apparent malnutrition, and six (24%) were predated.

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). CITES II. Generally uncommon, pairs frequently solitary and dispersed. Has declined at edges of range, and usually disappears early from areas disturbed or settled by man. Very uncommon, Panama, where at risk from trade. In steep decline, W Colombia. Heavily persecuted for trade, Venezuela, and now local or extirpated throughout much of N & NW, but still fairly common in S (2 Hilty, S. L. (2003). Birds of Venezuela. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ); little habitat loss as yet. Uncommon in Guyana, but most widespread macaw in Surinam and French Guiana; greatly reduced in latter through uncontrolled hunting but still commoner there than A. macao (in contrast to pattern elsewhere). Under great pressure in E parts of C Brazil from both habitat loss and in particular taking of nestlings for trade, and now extinct in SE Brazil, where formerly common, except remnant population in Morro do Diablo State Forest, São Paulo. Apparently a steep decline in Ecuador in 1970s and now rare and very local (3 Ridgely, R. S., and P. J. Greenfield (2001). The Birds of Ecuador. Volumes 1–2. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, New York, USA. Close ), but still widespread though declining in Peru (4 Schulenberg, T. S., D. F. Stotz, D. F. Lane, J. P. O’Neill, and T. A. Parker (2007). Birds of Peru. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA. Close ), with a density of 1 pair/km² in Manu National Park. Common in campos cerrados, Paraguay, elsewhere uncommon to rare. Few records in Argentina since 1917, possibly escapes. Most of the average 1962 birds in international trade each year in 1981–1985 came from Bolivia and Guyana, and most went to USA; in 1986–1990 the figure fell slightly to 1706, with Guyana the chief source, but in 1993 the country introduced an indefinite prohibition on further exports.