Great Green Macaw(Ara ambiguus)
They are also known as Buffon's macaw or the Great Military macaw. They are the largest parrots in their natural range, the second heaviest macaw species, and the third heaviest parrot species in the world. This species averages 85–90 cm in length and 1.3 kg in weight. They are mainly green and have a reddish forehead and pale blue lower back, rump and upper tail feathers. The tail is brownish-red tipped with very pale blue.
The bare facial skin is patterned with lines of small dark feathers, which are reddish in older and female parrots. Juveniles have grey-coloured eyes instead of black, are duller in colour and have shorter tails which are tipped in yellow. The main morphological distinction with one of the subspecies is that this bird has a smaller, narrower bill. The great green macaw appears superficially similar to, and may easily be confused with, the military macaw where their ranges overlap.
Habitat
The great green macaw lives in tropical forests in the Atlantic wet lowlands of Central from Honduras to Panama and Colombia, and in South America in the Pacific coastal lowlands in Panama, Colombia and western Ecuador, where they also occur in deciduous (seasonal), dry tropical forests. In Colombia, where both species occur, it prefers more humid woodlands than the closely related military macaw. The habitat where it breeds in Costa Rica is practically non-seasonal, evergreen rainforest, with rain some ten months of the year, a precipitation of 1,500-3,500 mm a year, and an average temperature of 27 °C throughout the year.
In Costa Rica the habitats where they occur during breeding season is dominated by the almendro and Pentaclethra macroloba, with secondarily raffia palms dominated wetlands. It is usually observed below 600 m above sea level in Costa Rica during the breeding season, but disperses to higher elevations to 1000 m after breeding, and can be seen as high as 1500 m in southern Panama.The population in Ecuador is thought to be split into two disjunct areas in the western coast of the country, the coastal mountain range of the Cordillera de Chongon in southwestern Ecuador, and in the far north bordering Colombia from the west in Río Verde Canton in central coastal Esmeraldas Province, stretching eastwards into Imbabura Province. This bird is very uncommon in Ecuador. In Colombia it is reasonably common in the Darién region and the Gulf of Urabá near the Panamanian border, and is also found in the north of the Serranía de Baudó mountains on the Pacific coast, the West Andes, and found eastwards to the dry forests of the upper Sinú valley near the Caribbean coast. In Panama it is common in some areas such as the Caribbean slope and in parts of Darién National Park such as the famous Cana birdwatching site and across the Alto de Nique mountain and the adjacent border with Colombia. It is also found in Panama in the mountains of the Serranía de Majé near Panama City and the southern Cerro Hoya mountains. In Costa Rica in the early 2000s, the reproductive range of the great green macaw was thought to be restricted to 600 to 1120 km2 of very wet forests in the northeast along the border with Nicaragua. After the breeding season this population disperse in larger groups to higher altitudes both southwards in the central cordillera of Costa Rica as well as northwards to Nicaragua. Another population was known by 2007 in the hills inland between Old Harbour and Sixaola near the northern Panamanian border. In Nicaragua there are populations in the east of the country in the Bosawás, Indio Maíz Biological Reserve and San Juan reserves. It occurs in a number of areas in eastern Honduras such as the Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, where it is rare. This is a rare introduced species in Singapore, where it can be seen on Sentosa island and in Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West.
Diet
Birds have been recorded feeding on a wide variety of foodstuffs in the wild such as seeds, nuts and fruits, but also including flowers, bulbs, roots and bark. This macaw is able to crack open larger nuts than the sympatric scarlet macaw. The beak is particularly suited for breaking open large nuts. Great Green Macaws feed on seeds, fruits, hard-shelled nuts, and flowers, and they make seasonal movements throughout their ranges in response to the presence of fruiting trees. They are particularly associated with the mountain almond, or almendro tree, which provides food and nest sites for the bird across much of its range.
Breeding
The great green macaw's breeding season starts in December and ends in June in Costa Rica, and from August to October in Ecuador. In Costa Rica and Nicaragua it usually nests in the most common of the largest trees of the area, which are used for nesting 87% of the time in one 2009 study which looked at 31 nests. The trees used are generally quite tall, on average 32.5 m tall, but reaching to 50 m, and with a diameter at chest height of 75 to 166 cm. The nest cavity has no specific orientation. The cavities are usually found high up in the trunk, near the crown of the tree. Such cavities were formed 87% of the time by a large branch breaking off the trunk in the crown of tree. Pairs have sometimes been found to nest in the same tree as other pairs, with a tree found with three active nest cavities at least twice. In Costa Rica it nests from December to June, with most pairs laying the first egg in January. The male macaw only has semen available during the breeding season; the semen has a low sperm concentration. The female lays a clutch of 2-3 eggs and incubates them for 26 days. A single adult (possibly the female) incubates the eggs while the other forages for food and feeds the incubating bird. Both parents participate in rearing the young. The nest contains chicks from February to April in Costa Rica, with the young usually being completely feathered by the end of April, rarely by mid-June. Chicks hatch weighing 23g, can fly after 12–13 weeks, and are weaned after 18–20 weeks when they weigh over 900g. In the wild, generally two young are produced per nest. Chicks eat the same things as the parents. This species has high reproductive success (60% of young survive). After fledging juveniles stay with the parents as a family unit for a significant amount of time, only separating gradually from them. Juvenile birds, at least in captivity, are mature after 5 years, and sexually mature after 6 or 7 years. This species can live to 50–60, to a maximum of 70, years of age.
Population
According to the IUCN Red List, they are classed as Endangered(EN). The global population is estimate to number fewer than 2,500 mature individuals, or fewer than 3,700 individuals in total, when juveniles and immatures are included. There were estimated to be 1,530 individuals in the southern Nicaragua - northern Costa Rica population in 2009. High annual deforestation rates combined with illegal capture for the pet trade and subsistence hunting mean there is little doubt that global populations have been reduced over the past three generations by >50 %.
Threats
In Central America, there is conversion to banana plantations and cattle-ranching, and logging. Dipteryx panamensis is selectively logged in Costa Rica. Annual deforestation rates are very high throughout its range. Deforestation in Panama probably exceeds 30% of its original range and in some other countries (e.g., Costa Rica and Ecuador) the historical range was reduced by ~90 % over the past 100 years. In its South American range, plans to colonise and develop remoter areas are progressing through infrastructural improvements, particularly the rapid expansion of the road network, which have increased the impact of logging, small-scale agriculture, illegal coca plantations, gold mining, and hunting, which is even affecting some key protected areas. Large areas western Ecuador are being purchased, denuded of forest and converted to industrial oil palm plantations. Urbanisation and agriculture have largely extirpated race guayaquilensis, and it is reportedly shot as a crop-pest. There is illegal capture for (mostly internal) trade, food and feathers.
Conservation
Conservation Actions Underway
CITES Appendix I and II, and part of the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria's European Endangered [Species] Programme (EAZA). The stronghold is in Darién Biosphere Reserve, Panama, and adjacent Los Katíos National Park, Colombia. There are important reserves in all range states, but these provide insufficient protection for seasonal wanderers. In Costa Rica, a proposed moratorium on logging D. panamensis has not been implemented. A bi-national campaign in the lowlands of the San Juan River (Nicaragua and Costa Rica) aims to increase awareness of biology, threats and conservation, and strengthen management of natural resources. A government-backed conservation strategy is being implemented in Ecuador. In 2007, a successful rapid assessment study in search of the last surviving individuals was carried out in the Cordillera Chongón-Colonche, Ecuador. Habitat restoration utilizing native dry tropical forest species that are known or potential macaw food sources is being carried out in the Cerro Blanco Protective Forest, W Ecuador, by the Pro-Forest Foundation, with >250 hectares so far replanted with 35 native species. A biological corridor is being created to link the Cerro Blanco Protective Forest with remaining forest fragments in the Chongon Colonche Protective Forest.
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Conservation Actions Proposed
Implement population monitoring programs. Monitor rates of habitat loss and degradation. Quantify levels of persecution and capture for trade. Effectively protect reserves in Honduras, Nicaragua, Ecuador and other countries. Sustainably manage the buffer zones of key protected areas and reserves and develop captive breeding programmes. Curtail trade through law enforcement and educational campaigns. Designate the proposed Maquenque National Park, Costa Rica. In Ecuador, designate the Awá reserve, Cotacachi-Cayapas Ecological Reserve, Awacachi corridor, Gran Reserva Chachi, and Canandé Reserve, including the Río Santiago, Cayapas, Ónzole, and Hoja Blanca drainages, as a biosphere reserve. In Ecuador, efficiently guard all known nests during the entire nesting period to avoid the destruction of nesting trees and the collection of nestlings by poachers. Acquire private reserves in selected areas. Create a biological corridor for the species (and others), linking forest remnants in the Cordillera Chongon Colonche with the Cerro Blanco Protected Forest.