Birds
Scarlet Macaw
Ara macao · also called scarlet macaw, guacamaya
The scarlet macaw is the archetypal jungle parrot — nearly a metre of vivid red, gold, and blue, flying in loud pairs above the rainforest canopy. It is one of the largest parrots, one of the longest-lived, and one of the most heavily trafficked.
Overview
Scarlet macaws live in humid lowland rainforest and gallery forest along rivers, from southern Mexico through Central America and across the Amazon basin to Bolivia and Brazil. They spend the day moving through the canopy in pairs and family groups, often within larger flocks, and gather at communal roost trees at night. Their carrying, grating calls are one of the defining sounds of the Neotropical forest.
The beak
A scarlet macaw’s hooked beak is a precision cracking tool powerful enough to open a Brazil nut or a hard palm seed that most animals cannot touch. The bird holds food in one zygodactyl foot (two toes forward, two back), rotating and positioning it against the beak, and uses the beak as a third limb for climbing. This lets macaws exploit tough seeds and nuts that are unavailable to other fruit-eaters.
Clay licks
In the western Amazon, scarlet macaws fly to exposed riverbank clay and eat it in crowded, raucous gatherings. The clay is thought to bind plant toxins in their seed-heavy diet and to supply sodium, which is otherwise hard to find far inland. The behaviour peaks during breeding.
Pairs for life
Scarlet macaws mate for life. Partners fly wingtip to wingtip, feed and preen each other, and stay bonded year-round. They nest in cavities in large old trees, and competition for suitable holes is fierce. A pair raises only one or two chicks in a successful year and frequently skips breeding altogether, so reproduction is slow.
Status
Globally the scarlet macaw is Least Concern, still common across Amazonia. But across Central America it has been trapped for the pet trade and lost its nesting forest to the point of local extinction in most areas, surviving in scattered strongholds and reintroduction sites in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, and Honduras. Protecting large nest trees, curbing the illegal trade, and captive-breeding-and-release programmes are the main conservation tools where the bird is in trouble.
Scarlet Macaw: common questions
Do scarlet macaws mate for life?
Yes. A scarlet macaw pair forms a long-term, usually lifelong bond and stays together throughout the year, not only in the breeding season. Paired birds fly so close that their wingtips nearly touch, roost pressed together, feed each other, and preen one another's head feathers. This constant partnership is thought to keep the pair coordinated and ready to breed whenever conditions allow. If one bird dies, the survivor may eventually take a new mate.
Why do macaws eat clay?
At certain riverbanks in the western Amazon, scarlet macaws and other parrots gather in noisy crowds to bite mouthfuls of exposed clay from the bank — a "clay lick" or collpa. The long-standing explanation is that clay particles bind and neutralise toxic compounds in the seeds and unripe fruit the birds eat, acting like a natural version of the medical charcoal used for poisoning. Clay licks also provide sodium, which is scarce in inland rainforest. The behaviour is most intense in the breeding season, supporting the mineral-supplement idea.
How long do scarlet macaws live?
In the wild, a scarlet macaw that reaches adulthood typically lives 30 to 50 years. In captivity, with veterinary care and no predators, they routinely pass 60 and some have reached their mid-70s. This long lifespan, combined with a slow reproductive rate — a pair raises only one or two chicks in a good year and often skips years — is part of why local populations recover so slowly once they are reduced.
Are scarlet macaws endangered?
As a global species, no — the scarlet macaw is listed as Least Concern because large numbers remain across the Amazon basin. But the picture is very uneven. In Central America, decades of trapping for the pet trade and clearance of nesting forest have wiped the bird out of most of its former range, leaving small, isolated, threatened populations in Costa Rica, Guatemala, and a few other areas, some supported by reintroduction projects. The northern subspecies is of particular concern.