Lear's macaw
Lear's macaw | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Psittaciformes |
Family: | Psittacidae |
Genus: | Anodorhynchus |
Species: | A. leari
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Binomial name | |
Anodorhynchus leari Bonaparte, 1856
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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 macaw is 70–75 cm (27+1⁄2–29+1⁄2 in) long and weighs around 950 g (2 lb 2 oz). It is coloured almost completely blue, with a yellow patch of skin at the base of the heavy, black bill.
Although there are records of the macaw from Britain from the early 1830s, this bird was only generally recognised as an independent species in the late 1970s. It is rare with a highly restricted native range, which was only discovered in 1978, although intensive
Taxonomy
Lear's macaw was named after the famous poet,
Description
Lear's macaw is 70–75 cm (27+1⁄2–29+1⁄2 in) long and weighs around 950 g (2 lb 2 oz).
The body, tail, and wings are dark metallic blue with a faint, often barely visible, tinge of green, and the head is a slightly paler shade. It has an area of pale-yellow skin adjacent to the base of its beak, and orange-yellow eye rings. It has a large, blackish beak and dark grey feet.
Lear's macaw is similar to the larger hyacinth macaw and the slightly smaller glaucous macaw. The hyacinth macaw can be distinguished by its darker plumage, lack of greenish tinge, and a differently shaped patch of yellow skin adjacent to the base of the bill. The glaucous macaw is paler and has a more greyish head.[9]
Ecology and behaviour
Feeding
The primary diet of Lear's macaw are the nuts (as many as 350 per day) of the palm
The macaw usually forages in groups. They preferentially feed on the palms where they grow in groves, mixed together with taller trees. At least thirty confirmed feeding localities are known throughout the range. A tall tree is selected by the flock as base to carefully inspect the feeding area. First a pair descends to the level of the palms to assess the suitability, the pair then returns to base, and then the entire flock descends to decide if it is worth staying around.[6] If it is, then the macaws generally feed directly at the site, tearing the fibrous pulp off the fruit to obtain the extremely hard and thick-shelled nut. The pulp is discarded.[11] The heavy bills appear to have evolved specifically to crack open the palm nuts with a chisel-shaped edge, being precisely of the correct size and shape.[12] Upon occasion the birds maw fly off to a better perch to consume the nut, sometimes even carrying a branchlet with a few fruit.[11] Such perches are generally a branch of a tall tree or a cliff face, and the ground below such a perch will become littered with piles of cracked palm nut shells, and are thus easily spotted.[12][13]
A mystery regarding plants in the
A method by which the birds may secondarily disperse the nuts is by their habit of coming down to the ground to search out the nuts regurgitated by cattle, which eat the fruit, but usually cough up the large seeds, cleaned of pulp, which often aggregate in areas where the ruminants rest, and some also appear to be viable after this ordeal.
Lear's macaw are somewhat of a
Breeding
The mating season starts at the beginning of the summer rains, at the start of the year, and extends up to May, when the young begin to fledge and leave the nest.[6] A pair of Lear's macaw lay two or three eggs per year.[5][6] The eggs are incubated for approximately 29 days.[5] Although some pairs produce three chicks, the average survival rate is two per pair. However, not all pairs of birds in the wild population mate often or at all.[6] The young remain with their parents for up to a year. Juveniles reach sexual maturity around 2–4 years of age.[5]
Distribution and habitat
For a century and a half after it had been described, the species was only known from sporadic occurrences in the bird trade, and the whereabouts of the wild population was unknown.[10] A wild population was eventually discovered in 1978 by ornithologist Helmut Sick in Bahia in the interior northeast of Brazil. Until this discovery the birds were thought to be simply a variant form of the closely related hyacinth macaw.[4]
Lear's macaw roosts on sandstone cliffs, which were formed by streams cutting through outcrops.[17] It is known from two colonies at locations known as Toca Velha and Serra Branca, south of the Raso da Catarina plateau in northeast Bahia. In 1995, a roosting site holding 22 birds was located at Sento Sé/Campo Formoso, 200 km (120 mi) to the west.[10]
From these roosts, the macaws travel throughout the region (the municipalities of Campo Formoso, Canudos, Euclides da Cunha, Jeremoabo, Monte Santo, Novo Triunfo, Paulo Afonso, Santa Brígida and Sento Sé), relying on stands of licury palm to find much of their sustenance. This palm stand habitat is thought to have once stretched over 250,000 km2 (97,000 sq mi) in Brazil, but has been much reduced due to clearance for agriculture. Cattle grazing in the palm stands also appear to be damaging and killing the seedlings, thus posing a challenge for the recruitment of new mature palms -such stands were found to have very little young licury palms. In response to this, tens of thousands of palms were propagated and planted in fenced-off areas in the early 2000s.[10]
Lear's macaw also requires pre-existing natural cavities found in the sandstone cliffs in which to nest. The availability of such cavities may eventually limit population growth,[17] and thus one group of conservationists advised that more cavities should be excavated artificially.[1]
Conservation
Population and conservation status
This species is currently listed as an endangered species (CITES I).
Yamashita, one of the first scientists to study this bird in the wild,
BI assessed the species as '
In the 2009 assessment, the conservation status of the species was downgraded to endangered from critically endangered by BI, as it was by now clear that the population was growing rapidly. Despite stating this, BI estimated the population as unchanged since 2008, at 250-500 individuals, claiming most of the rest of the total population were probably sub-adults, and that the population growth was unknown. The species was assessed as endangered based on criteria B1ab(iii),
In 2014 Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) counted 1,294 birds, this increased to 1,354 in the 2017 ICMBio count, and grew further to 1,694 in the 2018 count. In the 2019 IUCN assessment, BI continued to assert that the population was 250-999 individuals, but now first stated that the population growth was increasing. The map was extended to show the foraging ranges, and not only the roosting sites. The 'Threats' section was updated to emphasise reduction of food resources due to habitat loss caused by the historical expansion of agricultural development in the region (criterion B1b(iii)). An explanation was also given for reducing the number of mature individuals to 228, a 2014 study published by Pacífico et al.[27] This study stated that although the total population size at some 1,125 birds was well known by 2010, it was unknown how many of these birds were actively breeding. During the 2010 season, 114 nests and probable nests were counted. As each nest represents two actively breeding birds, this indicates that 20.3% of the population was actively breeding each season, which is comparable to other similar parrot species.[17] This would also indicate that there were at least 228 mature individuals at the time, assuming maturity was defined as those individuals which were successful at breeding, and would indicate that by 2018, some 340 birds would be reproductively active adults.[27] Of the nests which were monitored, some 80% of the nests showed successful reproduction, which is quite high compared to other parrots.[17]
Threats
As well as habitat loss, Lear's macaw may have historically suffered from hunting,[27] and more recently, trapping for the aviary trade in the 1990s.[6][21]
Funding and conservation actions
Fundação Biodiversitas bought and created the Canudos Biological Station in 1991 to protect the sandstone cliffs of Toca Velha used by the macaws to roost and nest.[28][29] Canudos Biological Station was expanded in 2007, partially with funding by the American Bird Conservancy, from 375 acres (152 hectares) to 3,649 acres (1,477 hectares).[3][28][30]
Two protected areas,[1] designated by the Brazilian government in 2001, conserve portions of the range: Raso da Catarina Ecological Station (104,842 hectares (259,070 acres), administered by ICMBio),[31] and Serra Branca / Raso da Catarina Environmental Protection Area (67,234 hectares (166,140 acres), administered by the Instituto do Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hídricos, the state agency of Bahia tasked with the environment). This latter area contains both the privately owned Canudos Biological Station where Toca Velha is located, and the privately owned Serra Branca ranch, which contains the majority of the nest and roost sites.[29]
Current Lear's macaw conservation projects are managed under the authority of IBAMA. Various independent conservation organizations,[6] under direction of ICMBio, along with local ranchers, are working to help conserve the species.
In 1992 the 'Special Working Group for the Preservation of the Lear's Macaw' was created. In 1997 the 'Committee for the Preservation of the Lear's Macaw (Anodorhynchus leari)' was formed. In 1999 this committee was amalgamated with that of A. hyacinthinus and was renamed 'The Committee for the Recovery and Management of the Anodorhynchus leari Lear's Macaw and Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus Hyacinth Macaw'.[6] The 'Committee for the Conservation and Management of the Lear's Macaw' advises IBAMA on the conservation of Lear's macaw. The committee includes Brazilian and international organizations and individuals.
Aviculture
One of the earliest records (and one of very few at all) of a Lear's macaw in a public zoo was a dramatic display of "the four blues" including Lear's, glaucous, hyacinth, and Spix's macaws in 1900 at the Berlin Zoo.[32]
According to the World Parrot Trust, the Lear's macaw is currently extremely rare in captivity and may live for 60 years,[33] whereas the Animal Ageing and Longevity Database cites the maximum recorded longevity for a captive Lear's macaw at 38.3 years.[34] It is recommended that this parrot be kept in an enclosure of 15 metres in length.[33]
See also
References
- ^ a b c d BirdLife International (2020). "Anodorhynchus leari". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2020. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
- ^ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
- ^ a b c "Lear's Macaw". Bird of the Week. American Bird Conservancy. 20 November 2020. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ a b c "Lear's macaw (Anodorhynchus leari)". WildScreen. Arkive. Archived from the original on 2012-12-27. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
- ^ a b c d e "Lear's macaw". SeaWorld/Busch Gardens. Animal Bytes. Archived from the original on 29 November 2010. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Pittman, Tony (2000). "The Lear's Macaw". Parrots - Parrot Conservation - Breeding. The Parrot Society UK. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ISBN 9781199061096.
- ^ "Illustrations of the family of Psittacidae, or Parrots". Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture. Retrieved 2010-04-08.
- ^ "Species factsheet: Anodorhynchus leari". BirdLife International (2008). Retrieved 24 July 2008.
- ^ a b c d e f BirdLife International (2012). "Anodorhynchus leari". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
- ^ hdl:10261/216208.
- ^ a b Yamashita, Carlos; de Paula Valle, Mauro (1993). "On the linkage between Anodorhynchus macaws and palm nuts, and the extinction of the Glaucous Macaw". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 113: 53–60.
- ^ a b c d e Yamashita, Carlos (December 1997). "Anodorhynchus macaws as followers of extinct megafauna: an hypothesis". Ararajuba. 5 (2): 176–182. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
- PMID 31543903.
- PMID 22802644.
- ^ Pittman, Tony (23 November 2020). "Covid-19 prevents the corn replacement team operating". BlueMacaws. Tony Pittman. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
- ^ S2CID 87800213. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
- ^ a b c d BirdLife International (2016). "Anodorhynchus leari". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2016. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ a b c Holmer, Steve (18 July 2007). "Lear's Macaw Making a Remarkable Comeback in Protected Reserve" (Press release). American Bird Conservancy. Archived from the original on 17 July 2014. Retrieved 11 August 2015.
- ^ a b c BirdLife International (2000). "Anodorhynchus leari". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2000. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f BirdLife International (2008). "Anodorhynchus leari". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2008. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ a b c BirdLife International (2004). "Anodorhynchus leari". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2004. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ a b BirdLife International (2009). "Anodorhynchus leari". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2009. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ a b "Categories and Criteria (version 3.1)". www.iucnredlist.org. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03.
- ^ BirdLife International (2013). "Anodorhynchus leari". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2013. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ BirdLife International (2017). "Anodorhynchus leari". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ a b c BirdLife International (2019). "Anodorhynchus leari". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2019. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ a b Hance, Jeremy (9 June 2009). "Lear's Macaw: back from the brink". Mongabay.com.
- ^ a b "APA Serra Branca / Raso da Catarina" (in Portuguese). INEMA: Instituto do Meio Ambiente e Recursos Hídricos (BA). Retrieved 2016-11-03.
- ^ "Top Nine Birding Destinations in 2019". BirdCalls - News and Perspectives on Bird Conservation. American Bird Conservancy. 1 February 2019. Retrieved 11 October 2021.
- ^ "Esec Raso da Catarina" (in Portuguese). Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation. Archived from the original on 2014-06-10. Retrieved 2016-04-19.
- ISBN 9780743475518.
- ^ a b "LEAR'S MACAW (Anodorhynchus leari)". World Parrot Trust. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
- ^ "AnAge entry for Anodorhynchus leari". Animal Ageing and Longevity Database. Retrieved 15 October 2021.
External links
- Rare Blue Parrot Back from the Brink of Extinction, American Bird Conservancy, 9 June 2009
- Parrot Encyclopedia – Species Profiles by World Parrot Trust
- Parrots International
- Blue Macaws
- images and movies of the Lear's macaw (Anodorhynchus leari) at ARKive