Blue Throated Macaw

BUY BLUE THROATED MACAW PARROTS FOR SALE ONLINE

The Blue Throated Macaw is perhaps the most extraordinary variety in this mainstream and famous species.

The blue-throated (Ara glaucogularis; previously Ara caninde), also known as the Caninde macaw or Wagler’s macaw,^[2] is a macaw endemic to a small area of north-central Bolivia, known as Los Llanos de Moxos. In 2014 this species was designated by law ^[3] as a natural patrimony of Bolivia, where it is known as barba azul, which means ‘blue beard’ in Spanish. 

Blue Throated Macaw

Recent population and range estimates suggest that about 350–400 individuals remain in the wild. Its demise was brought upon by nesting competition, avian predation, and a small native range, exacerbated by indigenous hunting and capture for the pet trade.^[5] Although plentiful in captivity,^[6] it is critically endangered in the wild and is protected by trading prohibitions.^[7]

The name “Wagler’s macaw” is in honor of German herpetologist Johann Georg Wagler, who processed many of Johan Baptist von Spix’s Brazilian collections at the Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich, and first described the blue macaws for a European readership in Monographia Psittacorum (1832).

Ara is from a Tupi Indian word for macaw; glauco (glacous Latin for greyish-blue or green) + gularis (Latin: throat). The Blue-throated macaw is one of 8 extant species (and a few extinct species) in genus Ara of large long-tailed parrots collectively called macaws. The genus Ara is one of six genera of Central and South American macaws in the tribe Arini, which also includes all the other long-tailed New World parrots. Tribe Arini together with the short-tailed Amazon and allied parrots and a few miscellaneous genera make up subfamily Arinae.

blue throated macaw for sale

The blue-throated macaw is about 85 cm (33 in) long including the length of its tail feathers and has a wingspan of approximately three feet or 0.9 m.^[8] It weighs about 900 g (32 oz) to 1,100 g (39 oz). There is little easily observable sexual dimorphism; however, males tend to be a little bigger than females with approximate masses of 750 g and 950 g respectively.^[8] Upperparts are turquoise-blue, slightly duller on crown and brighter on rump. Underparts largely bright yellow but the vent is pale blue. It has bare facial patch obscured by blue feather-lines merging into blue lower cheek and throat, separated from crown by narrow yellow stripe and bare pink skin around base of the large, black bill.^[9] On the face there is a sparsely feathered patch of skin near the base of the large dark-colored bill that has 5 or 6 horizontal stripes of blue feathers which are unique for every blue-throated macaw and can be used to individually identify adults