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| SCIENTIFIC
CLASSIFICATION |
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| COMMON
NAME: |
Lear's
macaw, indigo macaw |
| KINGDOM: |
Animalia |
| PHYLUM: |
Chordata |
| CLASS: |
Aves |
| ORDER: |
Psittaciformes |
| FAMILY: |
Psittacidae
(true parrots) |
| GENUS
SPECIES: |
Anodorhynchus
(toothless beak) leari |
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| DESCRIPTION: |
The
Lear's macaw is a very large parrot mostly covered
with bright blue plumage. It has bare yellow eye
ring circles around large black eyes and yellow
in the chin region. Under the wings and tail is
black. The breast is green-blue. Like other parrots,
the Lear's macaw has a strongly hooked beak and
zygodactylous feet (2 toes that point forward and
2 toes that point backward). |
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| SIZE: |
Up
to 90 cm (3 ft.) |
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| WEIGHT: |
Approximately
940 g (2 lb.) |
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| DIET: |
Feeds
on seeds, fruits, nuts, and berries |
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| INCUBATION: |
Approximately
29 days |
| CLUTCH
SIZE |
2-3
eggs |
| FLEDGING
DURATION |
4 months; then remain with parents for up to a year |
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| SEXUAL
MATURITY: |
2-4
years |
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| LIFE
SPAN: |
30-50
years or more |
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| RANGE: |
Northeast
Bahia, northern Brazil |
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| HABITAT: |
Includes
deep canyons and dry plateaus; nests mainly on cliffs,
ledges, and rock faces |
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| POPULATION: |
GLOBAL |
Estimated
at 150 birds or less |
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| STATUS: |
IUCN |
Endangered |
| CITES |
Appendix
I |
| USFWS |
Critcally
Endangered |
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|
| 1. |
The
Lear's macaw is named after Edward Lear, an artist
from the mid 1800s who was famous for painting macaws
and creating nonsense rhymes. |
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| 2. |
The
Lear's macaw, along with other blue parrots, was
exported to Europe as early as the nineteenth century.
Originally, scientists thought this bird to be a
hyacinth or glaucous macaw, or at least a hybrid
of the two. It was not until 1978 that Helmut Sick,
an ornithologist, determined it to be a distinct
species. |
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| 3. |
Macaw
pairs remained bonded. |
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| 4. |
In
the wild, macaws often flock to mountains of clay
known as "macaw licks". |
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| 5. |
When
disturbed, these bright birds screech loudly and
circle overhead with their long tails streaming. |
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| 6. |
Macaws
are playful and inquisitive and are able to mimic
human vocalizations very well. |
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| 7. |
Macaws
are extremely messy eaters - their incredibly strong
beaks are perfectly adapted for eating all sorts
of nuts and seeds, as seen in their ability to crack
open incredibly hard-shelled nuts (such as Brazil
nuts) with ease. |
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| 8. |
Macaws
are able to reach speeds of up to 35 miles per hour. |
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In
the course of daily feeding, macaws allow plenty
of seeds (while eating, as well as in their droppings)
to fall to the forest floor, thus generating much
of the forest growth.
Lear's
macaws are endangered for several reasons. They
are food for indigenous people, collected in the
illegal pet trade, and subject to habitat loss.
The pet trade is the Lear's primary threat. Bird
collectors pay thousands of dollars per bird.
Smugglers take the eggs or young birds and sell
them to United States exotic pet stores.
The
Lear's second biggest threat is habitat loss.
Farmers take the food from the licuri palms,
which the Lear's rely on, and feed it to their
goats and livestock, leaving Lear's foodless.
Some locals also hunt the birds because they are
considered a crop pest.
Field
scientists estimate that the Lear's macaw will
be extinct in roughly 10 years. Currently, it
is estimated only 200 of these birds are left
in the wild.
In
1990, Defenders of Wildlife began a campaign in
which more than 100 commercial airlines agreed
to stop carrying birds. This stopped the delivery
of new birds to dealers and forced some of them
to breed the captive species they already had.
In 1995 the Wild Bird Conservation Act was enacted
and it halted the import of endangered birds,
especially macaws.
The
U.S. Wild Bird Act forbids the commercial import
of any bird listed by CITES which includes most
parrots - endangered or threatened.
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| |
|
|
| Forshaw,
J.M. Parrots of the World. New Jersey. T.F.H.
Publications Inc. 1978. |
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|
Marrison,
C. and A. Greensmith. Birds of the World.
New York: Dorling Kindersley, Inc. 1993.
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|
| Perrins,
C. (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Birds. New
York: Facts on File Publications. 1985. |
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| http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/search/species_search.html |
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| http://www.nwf.org/wildalive/macaw/ |
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