Military Macaw - BirdForum Opus

Subspecies militaris
Photo by Stanley Jones
Wildsumaco Lodge, Napo Province, Ecuador, January 2016

Ara militaris

Identification

70–71 cm (27½-28 in)

• Red forehead
• White bare patch over eye (sometimes flushed pink) with dark lines
• Blue primaries
• Red tail with blue borders
• Greyish-black bill
• Yellow iris

Distribution

Central and South America
Central America: found in Mexico and Guatemala
South America: Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Subspecies mexicanus
Photo by Fernando Cerra
Jaumave Tamaulipas, Mexico, December 20004

There are 3 subspecies^[1]:

• A. m. mexicanus:

• Arid western Mexico (Sonora to Isthmus of Tehuántepec)

• A. m. militaris:

• Tropical Colombia to north-western Venezuela, Ecuador and northern Peru

• A. m. bolivianus:

• Tropical Bolivia and extreme north-western Argentina

Habitat

Dryish montane evergreen and deciduous forests, gallery forests and pine-oak woodland.

Behaviour

Diet

Their diet includes various fruits and figs, berries, seeds and nuts.

Breeding

They nest in holes at the tops of trees. The clutch consists of 1 or 2 eggs which are incubated by the female for 26 days.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2015. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2015, with updates to August 2015. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Avibase
3. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved April 2016)
4. Wikipedia

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Military Macaw. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 29 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Military_Macaw

External Links

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