The Canindé macaw (Arara ararauna) is a psittaciform bird of the Psittacidae family. Psittacidae is a very characteristic and easily identifiable group of birds. They have a robust, high, curved beak, short legs, and zygodactyl feet (with two fingers facing forward and two backward), as well as strong vocalizations and lush plumages.
Brazil is the richest country in the world in Psittacidae diversity, with 87 species catalogued to this day. In the first maps of the XVI century, this wealth was already fully evidenced, and our country was designated as "Brasilia sive terra papagallorum" ("Brazil, or, land of parrots").
Among the Brazilian Psittacidae, macaws are the largest representatives (reaching almost one meter of wingspan and approximately 1.5 kg). Also known as the blue-and-yellow macaw, or blue-and-gold macaw, Arara ararauna is about 80 cm long. It has a very lush color, predominantly blue and yellow. They are monogamous animals living in pairs, flying together, almost touching the wings. They communicate in a complex way through noisy vocalizations. Its main threats are hunting and fragmentation and habitat destruction.
They travel long distances between resting and feeding places during the day, eating seeds, fruits and nuts. They nest between December and May in holes in the trunk of large dead palm trees, between 10 and 25 meters high, rising from 1 to 2 chicks.
In captivity, they can live up to 80 years.
The species is locally common in the canopy of gallery forests, floodplains with palm trees (buritizais, babassu, etc.), inland, and edges of high forests, at about 500 m altitude. It lives in pairs or in groups of 3 individuals, a combination maintained also when larger flocks of up to 30 individuals are formed.
Knowing the specific behaviors and the relationship of the species with the environment will help in the management of natural resources. The conservation of a species must be related to the conservation of its habitat so that by protecting an ecosystem, all population and evolutionary dynamics of the species in it are maintained.
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