Blue-and-yellow Macaw Gallery

Ara ararauna

The Birds of the World website introduces the Blue-and-yellow Macaw like this:  The Blue-and-Yellow Macaw is a boldly colored resident of the Neotropics that is found from eastern Panama through Colombia and from Venezuela east to Brazil and south to Bolivia. These macaws have a dull green forecrown with blue upperparts, a white bare face patch with a blackish green chinstrap, and bright yellow on the underparts, underside of tail, and underwing-coverts. Within their preferred habitat of seasonally flooded várzea and gallery forest, Blue-and-Yellow Macaws feed on a variety of fruits and nuts. The Blue-and-Yellow Macaw is not a globally threatened species, but its numbers are declining across much of its range due to hunting and the relentless collection of young birds for the pet trade.

I met, and photographed, my first Blue-and-yellow Macaw on August 16, 2023, about 15 miles west of Alta Floresta, Brazil.  Our small group (with Jeff Parker Tours) stopped at a palm grove along a rural highway and watched a pair of these beautiful birds.  To read my blog post that includes the sighting of this bird, look here.  Here is one of the photographs I took that day.

I was delighted to be able to watch this bird several more times on August 18, 2023.  This part of my Brazil trip was focused on finding Harpy Eagles, and while on the observation tower at the private ranch we visited we saw a number of Blue-and-yellow Macaws in flight.  Late that afternoon on the grounds of Southwild’s Amazon Lodge (Fazenda São Nicolau) we got to watch several Blue-and-yellow Macaws perched in palm trees.  Here are a few of my photos from that day.