Red-shouldered Macaw
Diopsittaca nobilis
Small macaw, easily confused with a large parakeet. Largely green apart from a contrasting bare white face, blue crown, and red shoulders. The bill varies in color between regions; all dark in the northern subspecies, with a paler upper mandible and dark lower mandible in other subspecies. Typically found foraging in groups or pairs in savannas, palm groves, and occasionally in urban areas. Has a loud rasping call.
Identification
The red-shouldered macaw, at 30 cm (12 in) long and 165 g (5.8 oz) weight, is the smallest of all the macaws. Like all macaws, it has a long narrow tail and a large head. It has bright green feathers on the body, with dark or slate blue feathers on the head just above the beak. The wings and tail have feathers that are bright green above and olive-green below. The leading edges of the wings, especially on the underside, are red. (These red feathers appear at puberty.) Their eyes are orange, and the skin around the eyes is white without feathers, just as in the larger macaws. This bare patch of facial skin is smaller in proportion to the head than the one seen in most larger macaws. The Hahn's macaw and noble macaw can be distinguished by the Hahn's having a black upper mandible and the Noble's having a lighter, horn-colored upper mandible.<p>Their natural vocalizations are more akin to screeches than they are to whistles.
Taxonomy
The red-shouldered macaw was formally described in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with all the other parrots in the genus Psittacus and coined the binomial name Psittacus nobilis. The red-shouldered macaw is now the only species placed in the genus Diopsittaca that was introduced in 1912 by the American ornithologist Robert Ridgway. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek dios meaning "noble" with psittakē meaning "parrot". The specific epithet noblilis is Latin meaning "noble". There are two distinct subspecies, D. n. nobilis (Hahn's macaw) and D. n. cumanensis (noble macaw), and some with longer wings might represent a poorly differentiated subspecies, D. n. longipennis, which intergrades with D. n. cumanensis in central Goiás, Brazil. The species is sometimes subsumed into the genus Ara.<p>Taxonomy proposed by BirdLife International splits the red-shouldered macaw into two species.
- Scientific name
- Diopsittaca nobilis
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Order
- Psittaciformes
- Family
- Psittacidae
- Genus
- Diopsittaca
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Red-shouldered macaws are very kind natured. Their personality is similar to the large macaws.<p>The red-shouldered macaw nests in a hole in a tree. There are usually three or four white eggs in a clutch. The female incubates the eggs for about 24 to 26 days, and the chicks fledge from the nest about 54 days after hatching.
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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