Scarlet macaw | |
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A. m. cyanopterus Copan, Honduras | |
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At Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Psittaciformes |
Family: | Psittacidae |
Genus: | Ara |
Species: | A. macao
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Binomial name | |
Ara macao | |
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Extant distribution of the scarlet macaw
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Synonyms | |
Psittacus macao Linnaeus, 1758 |
The scarlet macaw (Ara macao) is a large yellow, red and blue Neotropical parrot native to humid evergreen forests of the Americas. Its range extends from southeastern Mexico to Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela and Brazil in lowlands of 500 m (1,600 ft) (at least formerly) up to 1,000 m (3,300 ft), the Caribbean island of Trinidad, as well as the Pacific island of Coiba.[1] Formerly, the northern extent of its range included southern Tamaulipas. In some areas, it has suffered local extinction because of habitat destruction, or capture for the parrot trade, but in other areas, it remains fairly common. It is the national bird of Honduras. Like its relative the blue-and-yellow macaw, the scarlet macaw is a popular bird in aviculture as a result of its striking plumage. It is the third most common macaw species in captivity after the Blue and Gold and Greenwing Macaw respectively. In recent years it has become much rarer in captivity and much more expensive due to its placement on CITES Appendix I. In some countries its price is double the price of a Greenwing or up to four times the price of a blue and gold, but in the United States they are still cheaper than in other countries because of an already existing large avicultural population.