Critically Endangered
Blue-throated Macaw
Ara glaucogularis
The blue-throated macaw, also known as the Caninde macaw or Wagler's macaw, is a macaw endemic to a small area of north-central Bolivia, known as Los Llanos de Moxos.
Appearance
The blue-throated macaw is about 85 cm (33 in) long among them the length of its tail feathers and has a wingspan of approximately three feet or 90 cm. Underparts largely bright yellow but the vent is pale blue. It has a bare facial patch obscured by blue feather-lines merging into a blue lower cheek and throat, separated from its crown by a narrow yellow stripe and bare pink skin around base of the large, black bill.
It weighs about 900 g (32 oz) to 1,100 g (39 oz).
The name "Wagler's macaw" is in honor of German herpetologist and ornithologist Johann Georg Wagler, who processed many of Johan Baptist von Spix's Brazilian collections at LMU Munich, and first described the blue macaws for a European readership in Monographia Psittacorum (1832).
Range and habitat
The blue-throated macaw lives in the Llano de Moxos of the Beni Department of Bolivia, nesting in "Islas" (islands) of palm trees that dot the level plains. It is not a forest-dwelling bird. There are two areas inhabited by two sub-populations of Blue-throated Macaw: one is to the northwest of Trinidad (the capital city of Beni), and the other is to the south of Trinidad.
In 2008, American Bird Conservancy partnered with the World Land Trust-US, Loro Parque Fundacion, and Assiociacion Armonia to create the blue-throated macaw Reserve. In 2010, the reserve was expanded by 2,800 acres (formerly Juvena Ranch) and is now 11,500 acres.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet and breeding
It is not known if these macaws will pair with another mate if their original mate dies. Their main mode of locomotion is flying, but they are also able to climb trees, maneuver along branches and walk on the ground.
Blue-throated macaws do not eat seeds and nuts to the same extent as many other macaw species do. Instead, they primarily eat fruit from large palms.
In crisis
Recent population and range estimates suggest that about 208–303 adult individuals remain in the wild. Current threats continue to include hunting and trapping as well as tree cutting, invasive species, disease, and use of powders or foams used to extinguish fires. It is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN in the wild and is protected by trading prohibitions.
The blue-throated macaw has a very small population and is on the verge of extinction in the wild. It is listed on the IUCN Red List as critically endangered.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Blue-throated Macaw is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Blue-throated Macaw, Wikidata item Q476593. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
