Little soldier macaw
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Little soldier macaw ( Ara militaris ) |
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| ( Linnaeus , 1766) |
The Small Macaw ( Ara militaris ) is a parrot from the genus of authentics macaws ( Ara ).
description
The soldier macaw reaches a body length of 76 cm and a weight of 1.1 kg. The plumage is mostly green in color. The forehead is red, the throat brownish. The back of the neck and the large wing coverts, the back ( rump ) and the upper tail coverts are blue. The outer flags of the hand wings shimmer metallic blue. The tail is long and pointed. The tail feathers are reddish-brown with broad blue ends, the underside of the tail and wing feathers is olive yellow. On the extensive, bare cheek surface there are several lines of short, red feathers in front of the eyes and black feathers below the eyes. The iris of the eye is pale yellow (brown in juveniles), the beak black. The feet are dark gray.
The subspecies Ara militaris mexiana is slightly larger than the nominate form , in Ara militaris boliviana the throat color is reddish-brown and the blue of the tips of the tail feathers is darker.
Systematics and distribution
There are three subspecies :
- Ara militaris militaris - Colombia , Ecuador , Peru, and Venezuela .
- Ara militaris mexiana Ridgway , 1915 - Mexico .
- Ara militaris boliviana Reichenow , 1908 - Bolivia and Argentina .
habitat
The little soldier's macaw lives in dry and subtropical forests and wooded foothills. It usually lives at an altitude of 500 m to 3000 m above sea level. Depending on the season, the macaw can also live in the lowlands, where it then lives in damp and thorny forests.
Way of life
It lives in pairs or in small groups of up to 30 animals and can live to be 50-60 years old in the wild. Often you can hear him long before you see him, his noises sound like loud screeching and cracking. In the evening these groups gather in flocks of up to 500 birds at shared roosts.
nutrition
Birds' diet in the wild consists of seeds, fruits, nuts, berries and other vegetable foods found in the forest canopy. The beak is adapted to eat this food and it is easy for the birds to break open even the toughest shells. At dawn the macaws leave their sleeping places and look for so-called clay licks .
Brood
Small soldier's macaws breed in large, natural tree hollows or in crevices, probably in the dry season. They live monogamous , couples stay together for life. The females lay 1–2 eggs, which they hatch over a period of about 26 days. The macaws reach sexual maturity in the 2nd to 4th year of life. The young are fledged after about 100 days.
Hazard and protection
The population of the soldier's macaw is declining. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) classifies it as vulnerable (VU) due to the loss of habitat and the catches for trade. It is listed in the Washington Convention on the Protection of Species (CITES) in Appendix I and in EC Regulation 709/2010 [EC] in Appendix A and is strictly protected according to the Federal Nature Conservation Act [BG] (Status :: s).
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Steven L. Hilty: Birds of Venezuela. Princeton University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0691092508 , p. 326.
- ^ A b c Joseph M. Forshaw, Frank Knight: Parrots of the World. Princeton University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0691142852 , p. 180.
- ^ A b Steve NG Howell, Sophie Webb: A guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford University Press, 1995, ISBN 978-0198540120 , p. 337.
- ^ Military Macaw (English) . www.oiseaux-birds.com. Retrieved November 26, 2011.
- ↑ Federal Agency for Nature Conservation: WISIA-Online. accessed on November 6, 2011 Search online ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
literature
- Lars Lepperhoff: Aras , Eugen Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2004, a.152-156, ISBN 3-8001-3821-2
- Dieter Hoppe : Aras , Eugen Ulmer Verlag Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-8001-7081-7
- Werner Lantermann: Aras Horst Müller-Verlag, Walsrode 1983, ISBN 3-923269-11-0
Web links
- Ara militaris in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2008. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2008. Accessed January 30 of 2009.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of Ara militaris in the Internet Bird Collection