Hyacinth Macaw

The hyacinth macaw is the longest parrot in the world and the largest that can fly, about a metre from crown to the tip of its long pointed tail. It is cobalt blue all over, with darker black on the underside of the wings and tail, and a massive black bill. Bare skin around the eye and a crescent at the base of the lower mandible are bright yellow. It gives very loud, grating calls. The smaller Lear's macaw of northeastern Brazil is the only similar species (Wikipedia, general species account).

Its huge bill cracks palm nuts that few other animals can open, and in the Pantanal it feeds almost entirely on two palms; acuri nuts are often eaten after cattle have digested the fleshy outer part. Pairs nest from July to December in tree hollows or cliff crevices; in the Pantanal about 90% of nests are in old manduvi trees (Sterculia apetala), whose seeds are spread mostly by toco toucans, which also eat many macaw eggs. The second chick usually starves, young fledge at about 110 days and depend on their parents for about six months, and birds first breed at seven (Wikipedia, general species account).

One of the species' three main populations is the Pantanal of Brazil and the neighbouring parts of eastern Bolivia and Paraguay. Most Bolivian birds are thought to live in the San Matías protected area, where seasonally flooded savanna and wetland best predict their presence, and since the early 1990s they have also been known from the Noel Kempff Mercado area further north. The macaw is protected by Bolivian law, which sets prison sentences for unauthorised capture and trade, but illegal trade for pets continues in Santa Cruz (Wikipedia, general species account). On this guide it is a target species of the Bolivian Pantanal.