''Anodorhynchus'' is a genus of large blue
macaws from open and semi-open habitats in central and eastern
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...
. It includes two
extant species
Neontology is a part of biology that, in contrast to paleontology, deals with living (or, more generally, ''recent'') organisms. It is the study of extant taxa (singular: extant taxon): taxa (such as species, genera and families) with members st ...
, the
hyacinth macaw
The hyacinth macaw (''Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus''), or hyacinthine macaw, is a parrot native to central and eastern South America. With a length (from the top of its head to the tip of its long pointed tail) of about one meter it is longer tha ...
and
Lear's macaw
Lear's macaw (''Anodorhynchus leari''), also known as the indigo macaw, is a large all-blue Brazilian parrot, a member of a large group of neotropical parrots known as macaws. It was first described by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1856. Lear's ma ...
also known as the indigo macaw, and one probably
extinct species, the
glaucous macaw. At about in length the hyacinth macaw is the longest parrot in the world. Glaucous and Lear's macaws are exclusively cliff nesters; hyacinth macaws are mostly tree nesters. The three species mainly feed on the nuts from a few species of palms (notably ''
Acrocomia aculeata
''Acrocomia aculeata'' is a species of palm native to the Neotropics, from southern Mexico and the Caribbean south to Paraguay and northern Argentina. Common names include grugru palm, gloo gloo, macaúba palm, coyol palm, and macaw palm; syn ...
'', ''
Attalea phalerata'', ''
Butia yatay
''Butia yatay'', the jelly palm or yatay palm, is a '' Butia'' palm native to southern Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina. It is known as the ''butiá-jataí'' in Portuguese in the south of Brazil, as well as simply ''jataí'' or ''butiá'' ...
'' and ''
Syagrus coronata'').
While blue macaws have been known from taxidermic and captive specimens since at least 1790, location of the Lear's macaw's endemic habitat wasn't known until 1978.
The glaucous macaw was extirpated in the 1800s by clearance for agriculture and cattle grazing of the yatay palm (Butia yatay) groves upon which it fed, though rumors of its continued existence persist. Lear's macaws have made a comeback from near extinction in the early 1980s (about 60 birds) to over 1000 as a result of conservation programs. Hyacinth macaws remain locally common within parts of their range, but their range has become fragmented into three known distinct populations in southern Brazil, eastern Bolivia and northeastern Paraguay; populations are declining due to extensive trapping for the pet trade as well as habitat loss.
All ''Anodorhynchus'' macaws are listed on
CITES
CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...
Appendix I.
Taxonomy
The genus, ''Anodorhynchus''
Spix, 1824 is one of six genera of Central and South American macaws in tribe ''Arini'' of macaws, parakeets and closely related genera. The macaws and parakeets comprise the clade of long-tailed parrots which with sister clade the short-tailed Amazonian parrots and allies make up subfamily ''Arinae'' of Neotropical parrots in family ''Psittacidae'' of true parrots. There are three currently recognized species (two extant and one probably extinct), all
monotypic
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...
:
Some recent commentators have suggested that the allopatric Lear's macaw and glaucous macaw should be considered conspecifics.
Besides the three recognised species, there is the
violet macaw, ''Anodorhynchus purpurascens'', which was described by
Rothschild
Rothschild () is a name derived from the German ''zum rothen Schild'' (with the old spelling "th"), meaning "with the red sign", in reference to the houses where these family members lived or had lived. At the time, houses were designated by sign ...
and featured in his book, ''
Extinct Birds'' published in 1907, but there is very little evidence to support it as separate species and it should be regarded as a
hypothetical extinct species. In the absence of a specimen, Rothschild scientifically described and named it as a separate species based on the evidence that violet macaws were said to have inhabited the island of
Guadeloupe; however, they were probably hyacinth macaws imported from the mainland of South America.
Species details
See also
*
List of macaws
*
Spix's macaw, another distantly related blue macaw
References
External links
"Blue Macaws website"''Macaw Blues (part one): A Postmortem for the Glaucous Macaw''''Macaw Blues (part two): A Postmortem for the Glaucous Macaw''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q635333
Bird genera
