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The Beautiful Hyacinth Macaw

© Glenda Gibbons

The hyacinth macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) is a gentle giant among parrots. In fact, it is the largest parrot in the world today, being 40" (100 cm) long. There is not much information documenting the birds life in the wild. This is due to the inaccessibility of their habitat, which to this day, remains unexplored.

At one time, the hyacinth macaw occupied a good deal of central Brazil, south of the Amazon river, from Para' through Minas Gerais and Bahia up to the Mato Grosso. Small colonies would find their way into Paraguay and Bolivia, which are both close to the Pantanal region. Nowadays these birds are only found in small numbers in the Pantanal area. The reasons for this are due to the rapidly declining rainforest areas, and poachers who capture the birds to sell for exorbitant sums of money. Needless to say, the hyacinth macaw is indeed an endangered species. While some statistics say that there are between three and four thousand still existing in the Pantanal, many other professionals insist that there are only about one thousand left in that area.

Adding to this problem is a new development. Both legal and illegal gold mining take place in that area, leaving the land and wildlife to become septic and uninhabitable due to mercury pollution. It has already been reported that mercury poisoning is beginning to show itself through contaminated eggs. This means that all life in the Pantanal will become threatened.

The rare hyacinth macaw is a deep blue-purple in color. There are yellow rings around the eyes and along the bottom of the mandible. Hyacinth macaws have very strong bills, which are particularly suited to their natural diet and eating habits. The mainstay of their diet is palm nuts. They use their lower mandible as a tool to crack and split the palm nut. Then they eat the insides of the nuts. The only other creatures able to open palm nuts are human beings, and that is with the use of tools such as a hammer! Along with the staple of palm nuts, hyacinths enjoy other types of nuts, vegetables, and fruits that are sweet, but not necessarily juicy; a good example of this would be kiwis or banana. Almost all fruit becomes infested with insect larvae. Consuming infested fruit assures the birds of a protein supply.

The Pantanal region consists of land that is flooded for about half of the year. Hyacinth macaws live within the marshland and gallery forests of this region. Hollows in palm trees become nesting places, as well as holes in riverbanks. The birds are communal, and seek out roosting places together. Food is foraged in groups of two or more.

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