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Portrait of Hyacinth macaw

Nature · Birds

Hyacinth macaw

Vulnerable · c. 4,300–4,700 mature individuals

Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus — Psittacidae

The largest flying parrot in the world, about a metre long from crown to tail tip, entirely cobalt blue with bare yellow skin round the eye and at the base of the huge black bill. Most of the world population lives in the Brazilian Pantanal, where it nests almost exclusively in cavities of the manduvi tree and cracks open acuri and bocaiuva palm nuts. Trapping in the 1980s removed at least 10,000 birds; it is now Vulnerable and CITES Appendix I.

How to spot them

  • ▸Uniform deep cobalt-blue plumage with no other colour except the bare yellow skin
  • ▸A bare chrome-yellow eye-ring and a yellow crescent of skin at the base of the lower mandible
  • ▸A massive black bill able to crack palm nuts that need a hammer to open by hand
  • ▸About 1 m long overall, with a very long, pointed tail; wingspan about 1.2–1.4 m
  • ▸Loud, deep, guttural screeches, given in pairs or small family groups over open Pantanal woodland

How to know it

At about a metre from crown to tail tip, the longest and largest flying parrot in the world

Hyacinth macaw — the flightless kakapo is heavier.

Uniform cobalt blue with bare yellow skin round the eye and below the bill

Hyacinth macaw.

In the Pantanal about nine out of ten nests are in cavities of the manduvi tree

Hyacinth macaw — dependence on Sterculia apetala.

A bill strong enough to crack acuri and bocaiuva palm nuts; it also eats nuts passed through cattle dung

Hyacinth macaw.

Roughly 10,000 were taken from the wild in the 1980s for the cage-bird trade

Hyacinth macaw — the crash that led to CITES Appendix I listing.

The Pantanal holds the great majority of the world population, with outliers in the Cerrado and eastern Amazonia

Hyacinth macaw — Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List.

Its genus name means 'toothless bill'; the only close relatives are Lear's macaw and the presumed-extinct glaucous macaw

Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus, the hyacinth macaw.

Quick-fire facts

  • •Length about 100 cm, weight 1.2–1.7 kg; the largest macaw and largest flying parrot
  • •IUCN Red List: Vulnerable; BirdLife International estimates 4,300–4,700 mature individuals, with the population currently thought stable
  • •About 5,000 individuals live in the Brazilian Pantanal, the species' stronghold
  • •It depends on the manduvi tree (Sterculia apetala) for nest cavities; only a small proportion of trees have suitable holes
  • •Its diet is dominated by the nuts of the acuri (Attalea phalerata) and bocaiuva (Acrocomia aculeata) palms
  • •Around 10,000 are thought to have been taken from the wild during the 1980s; it is listed on CITES Appendix I
  • •The genus Anodorhynchus, 'toothless bill', also contains Lear's (indigo) macaw and the glaucous macaw, which is probably extinct
  • •Blu, the hero of the 2011 film Rio, is a Spix's macaw, not a hyacinth — a favourite quiz trap
  • •The Hyacinth Macaw Project in the Pantanal, begun by Neiva Guedes in 1990, pioneered artificial nest boxes

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources