Blue-winged Macaw - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by arthurgrosset
Minas Gerais, Brazil, July 2002

Identification

36–43 cm. Medium-sized largely green Macaw with red belly patch and lower back, red tail with blue tip and blue wings

overall green plumage
underwings yellow
crown, cheeks, distal part of tail, upper flight feathers and primary coverts blue
belly patch, tail base and lower back red
forehead patch at bill base red (often hard to see)
facial skin bare, pale yellow (can appear whitish)
iris amber
bill black

Eastern Brazil to Paraguay and extreme northeastern Argentina in South America.

The population is declining due to both habitat loss and trapping for the illegal pet trade.

Has been placed in genus Ara.

Clements regards this as a monotypic species [1].

Photo © by amesta
Las Piedras River, Peru, June 2014

Evergreen and deciduous forest including gallery forest within caatinga, especially forest edge and proximity to water.

Photo © by Luiz
Bahia, Brazil, 9 December 2015

There is little information, but their diet appears to include a variety of fruit, seeds and nuts.

Clements, J. F., P. C. Rasmussen, T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, A. Spencer, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, M. Smith, and C. L. Wood. 2024. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2024. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Collar, N., P. F. D. Boesman, and C.J. Sharpe (2020). Blue-winged Macaw (Primolius maracana), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.buwmac1.01

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Blue-winged Macaw. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 13 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Blue-winged_Macaw