The blue-throated macaw (Ara glaucogularis), also known as the Caninde macaw or Wagler's macaw, is a macaw endemic to a small area of north-central Bolivia, known as Los Llanos de Moxos. In 2014 this species was designated by law as a natural patrimony of Bolivia. Until 2010, it was hunted by native people to make feathered "Moxeño" headdresses for "machetero" ritual dances.
Recent population and range estimates suggest that about 208–303 adult individuals remain in the wild. Its demise was brought upon by nesting competition, avian predation, and a small native range, exacerbated by indigenous hunting and capture for the pet trade. Current threats continue to include hunting and trapping as well as tree cutting, invasive species, disease, and use of powders or foams used to extinguish fires. It is Critically Endangered in the wild and is protected by trading prohibitions.
The name "Wagler's macaw" is in honor of German herpetologist and ornithologist Johann Georg Wagler, who processed many of Johan Baptist von Spix's Brazilian collections at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and first described the blue macaws for a European readership in Monographia Psittacorum (1832).
Taxonomy
Ara is from a Tupi Indian word for macaw; (glaucous Latin for greyish-blue or green) + (Latin: throat). The Blue-throated macaw is one of 8 extant species (and a few extinct species) in genus Ara of large long-tailed parrots collectively called macaws. The genus Ara is one of six genera of Central and South American macaws in the tribe Arini, which also includes all the other long-tailed New World parrots. Tribe Arini together with the short-tailed Amazon and allied parrots and a few miscellaneous genera make up subfamily Arinae of Neotropical parrots in family Psittacidae of true parrots.
The blue-throated macaw was originally thought to be a subspecies (Ara ararauna caninde) of the similar-looking blue-and-yellow macaw.
Description
The blue-throated macaw is about long including the length of its tail feathers and has a wingspan of approximately three feet or 90 cm. It weighs about to . There is little easily observable sexual dimorphism; however, males tend to be a little bigger than females with approximate masses of 750 g and 950 g respectively. Upperparts are turquoise-blue, slightly duller on crown and brighter on rump. Underparts largely bright yellow but the vent is pale blue. It has a bare facial patch obscured by blue feather-lines merging into a blue lower cheek and throat, separated from its crown by a narrow yellow stripe and bare pink skin around base of the large, black bill. On the face there is a sparsely feathered patch of skin near the base of the large dark-colored bill that has 5 or 6 horizontal stripes of blue feathers which are unique for every blue-throated macaw and can be used to individually identify adults.
The adults have yellow irises and the juveniles have brown irises. The eye color of a nestling is initially black and changes to brown soon after the eyes open. Between one and three years old, the eyes will turn grey, then white. As the macaw matures, the iris turns yellow and the amount of gold increases with age after 10 years. Elderly macaws show a ring of dark grey surrounding the pupil where the iris has become thinner and the back of the retina shows through. It can be separated from the slightly larger blue-and-yellow macaw by the blue (not black) throat, the blue (not green) crown and the lack of contrast between the remiges and upperwing coverts.
Distribution and habitat
The blue-throated macaw lives in the Llano de Moxos of the Beni Department of Bolivia, nesting in "Islas" (islands) of palm trees that dot the level plains. It is not a forest-dwelling bird. This species is one of the rarest in the world. There are two areas inhabited by two sub-populations of Ara glaucogularis: one is to the northwest of Trinidad (the capital city of Beni), and the other is to the south of Trinidad. This complex landscape consists of grasslands, marshes, forest islands, and corridors of forests along waterways. They occur most often between the elevations of 200 and 300 m.