Macaw Compendium

Ara maracana -
Illiger's Macaw

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photo courtesy of Stefan Seifert,
Arbeitsgemeinschaft
Papageiennetzwerk

Taxonomy:

Psittaciformes / Aratingidae / Aratinginae / Ara / A.maracana
No subspecies.
Note: Because of some relations to the "Pyrrhura Conures" there seems to be a proposal to set up an own genus, Propyrrhura for this bird. I'll follow this, when valid data is availiable for me.

Names :

A. maracana              IE: Illiger's Macaw
                         IG: Rotrueckenara
                         I   Marakana
                         ID: Illigers Ara
                         IF: Ara d'Illiger
                         IP: Guacamayo de alas azules

Distribution:

Extreme NE-Argentina; E-Paraguay; Eastern and central parts of Brazil

Description:

Length: 43 cm
Plumage general green. Forehead red. Crown, neck and throat bluish green. Naked face white, striped with very tiny rows of feathers. V-shaped reddish spot at the belly. Lower back red. Flight feathers blue. Tailfeathers light maroon, turning blue to the tip.
Bill black
Legs flesh-colored
Iris orange brown

Habitat:

Along the riversides in arid savannah lands

Nutrition:

?

Breeding:

?

Status:

  • IUCN Red List (1994): not listed
  • CITES App. I

    Add. Notes:

    Though the range of this macaw is geographically large, there's not much reported of it's habits in the wild. Especially in the southern parts of the distribution this bird suffers from land clearances and retreats more and more into the outbacks.
    [Note] See the appended article by Stefan Seifert, Germany:
    Illiger's in an aviary Ara maracana in der Voliere.

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    Created for the Macaw's homepage Feb. 1996
    pfeffer@club.tu-clausthal.de