Glaucous Macaw

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Glaucous Macaw

Critically endangered, possibly extinct in the wild (IUCN 3.1)

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Psittaciformes
Family:	Psittacidae
Genus:	Anodorhynchus
Species:	A. glaucus

Binomial name

Anodorhynchus glaucus
(Vieillot, 1816)

The Glaucous Macaw, Anodorhynchus glaucus, is a South American parrot which is now critically endangered. It is closely related to the Lear's Macaw A. leari and the Hyacinth Macaw A. hyacinthinus.

It is a large (70cm) blue macaw. It is a pale turquoise-blue color with a large greyish head. It has a proportionally long tail and a massive bill. It has a yellow, bare eye-ring and half-moon-shaped lappets bordering the mandible.

This bird is resident in north Argentina, south Paraguay, north-east Uruguay and Brazil. It became rare during the 19th century due to trapping and loss of habitat, and only two acceptable records of wild birds were received in the 20th century. Expeditions by ornithologists to southwestern Paraguay during the 1990s failed to turn up any evidence that the bird was still in existence. Furthermore, only the oldest residents of the region had knowledge of the macaw, with the last sighting considered reliable occurring in 1932^{[citation needed]}. It is most probably that the bird's disappearance is linked to the wholesale felling of the yatay palm (Syagrus yatay), which nuts appear to have constituted its main food. However, suitable habitat seems to remain in El Palmar National Park in the Argentine province of Entre Ríos, and persistent rumors of the bird's existence necessitate further surveys.

In Guaraní, it was called guaa-obi after its vocalizations.

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2004). Anodorhynchus glaucus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 10 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is critically endangered