Name:  Green-winged Macaw

Range:
Eastern Panama and northwestern Colombia.

Habitat:
Heavily forested areas.

Description:
Measures 3 feet from head to tail, making it the second largest parrot in the world. Deep red body color with dark green on wings. Cheeks have tiny deep red feathers lining the face. Flight feathers are blue, and tail feathers are blue-tipped deep red. The beak is light on the upper mandible and black on the lower.

Adaptations/Habitat:
The colorfulness of this bird helps them to stay in visual contact with other macaws in a very green and leafy rain forest. Do the bright colors advertise it to predators as well? No, most of its predators are colorblind. Macaws eat large amounts of fruit seeds which are poisonous. It is hypothesized that the macaws eat clay to detoxify the poison of the seeds. They prefer to live in the canopy. They are cavity nesters so they need large mature trees in which to excavate a hole. A green-winged macaw can exert several hundred pounds of pressure per square inch with its beak, which is helpful when cracking open nuts to get at the "meat" inside.

Breeding/Growth:

Diet:
Seeds, fruit, nuts, berries.

Exhibit:

Notes: