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Hyacinth Macaw
Photo: © Kenneth Fink, Photo Researchers Inc., for Defenders of Wildlife

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BioBrasil Conservation Project

 

   
 

Hyacinth Macaw

Endangered Species

Description: The Hyacinth macaw is solid cobalt blue with bright yellow skin around the eye and at the base of the lower beak. The eye is solid black, the cheeks are fully feathered and the beak is very large and black. The black tongue is striped on the sides with yellow which becomes more defined with age. When wet, the feathers turn vibrant blue green. The Hyacinth Macaw is named after the flower with the same purplish-blue color.

Similar species: The "blue macaws" are all very rare or extinct. Lear's Macaw (A. leari) is significantly smaller, is a grayer blue color and has a broader yellow patch of skin both around the eye and at the base of the beak. There are approximately 400 alive today. The Glaucous Macaw (A. glaucus) is extinct. The Spix macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii) is small, pale blue, with a bare cheek patch.The last wild Spix macaw disappeared in 2000.

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