The Green-winged Macaw looks a lot like the Scarlet Macaw but its lower wing feathers are green. It is the most common of the large macaws in the wild and is widespread in forests of Northern South America. Unfortunately, in recent years, there has been a marked decline in its numbers due to habitat loss and illegal capture. Its powerful beak, which can generate a pressure of 200 psi, enough to snap a broomstick in half, is designed to crush or open even the hardest nuts and seeds.
The Harlequin Macaw is a beautiful hybrid cross between the Blue-and-yellow Macaw and this species. The coloration of the hybrid bird depends on which parent is which species; if the father is a Red-and-green, the Harlequin will generally be the size of a Red-and-green with the coloration of the Blue-and-yellow.
The Green-winged Macaw is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List and was last assessed in 2012 by BirdLife International. This species has an extremely large range, and hence does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion (Extent of Occurrence <20,000 km2 combined with a declining or fluctuating range size, habitat extent/quality, or population size and a small number of locations or severe fragmentation). Despite the fact that the population trend appears to be decreasing, the decline is not believed to be sufficiently rapid to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population trend criterion (>30% decline over ten years or three generations). The population size has not been quantified, but it is not believed to approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the population size criterion (<10,000 mature individuals with a continuing decline estimated to be >10% in ten years or three generations, or with a specified population structure). For these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern.
We recently added the Harlequin Macaw to Birdorable. The Harlequin Macaw is a relatively common hybrid macaw, a cross between a Green-winged (Red-and-green) Macaw and a Blue-and-yellow Macaw. Like other hybrid macaws, male Harlequins tend to take... Read more »
This week's highlighted t-shirt is this micro-fiber shirt with our Birdorable Green-winged Macaw, also known as the Red-and-green Macaw, one of the most common macaws that lives throughout forests in northern South America. For more cute parrots and parakeets visit our new Birdorable Parrots & Parakeets... Read more »
