Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao): Facts, Diet, Habitat and Lifespan

What does a scarlet macaw look like?

The scarlet macaw is mostly bright red. The upper wing has a broad band of yellow, the flight feathers and the tip of the tail are deep blue, and the rump and the feathers above and below the tail are pale sky blue. Seen from below in flight, the wings and long tail glow red and gold.

The face has a patch of bare, creamy-white skin that runs from the eye to the bill, almost free of feathers. The upper half of the bill is pale horn-colored and the lower half is black. Adults have pale yellow eyes; young birds have dark eyes and a slightly shorter tail. Males and females look alike, although males may have slightly larger bills and longer tails.

There are two recognized subspecies. The South American A. m. macao has green tips on some of the yellow wing feathers. The Central American A. m. cyanopterus, described in 1995, is a little larger and has blue instead of green at the edge of the yellow wing band.

People often confuse the scarlet macaw with the green-winged macaw (Ara chloropterus), which is slightly larger and darker red, has no yellow on the wing and shows lines of tiny red feathers across its bare face.

How big is a scarlet macaw?

The scarlet macaw is one of the largest parrots in the Americas, though the hyacinth macaw and the green-winged macaw are bigger. Much of its length is tail.

Central American birds average slightly larger than South American ones. In the hand, a scarlet macaw feels lighter than it looks: a kilogram of bird spread over almost a meter of feathers.

Habitat and range

Scarlet macaws live in warm, humid lowlands, mostly below about 1,000 m (3,300 ft). They favor tall rainforest, forest along rivers, forest edges and patches of woodland in savanna, and they spend almost all their time high in the canopy, usually well above 10 m (33 ft) from the ground. It is one of the most recognizable rainforest animals of the Americas.

The range stretches from southeastern Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama to northern South America, and across the Amazon Basin in Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Brazil. In South America the species is still widespread and locally common. In Central America it has been lost from large areas and now survives mainly in protected forests such as the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Guatemala, La Mosquitia in Honduras and Nicaragua, Coiba Island in Panama, and Carara National Park and the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica.

Escaped or released birds are occasionally seen in southern Florida and Puerto Rico, but there is no clear evidence of a self-sustaining wild population there.

What do scarlet macaws eat?

Scarlet macaws are mainly seed eaters. Their diet includes seeds and nuts, fruit, flowers, nectar, bark and young leaves, taken from dozens of different trees through the year. They often eat fruit before it is ripe, when the flesh is still hard and full of bitter defensive chemicals, which gives them access to food that most other animals cannot yet use.

The bill is the key tool. A macaw holds food in one foot, braces it against the lower bill and uses the hooked upper bill to slice, pry and crack. The thick, muscular tongue turns seeds so the bill can open them. Read more in How strong is a macaw’s beak?

In parts of the western Amazon, especially southeastern Peru, scarlet macaws gather in the early morning at exposed river banks called clay licks and eat the soil. Studies there suggest that the main reason is to obtain sodium, a mineral that is scarce in inland rainforest food. See Why do macaws eat clay? for the full story.

Because they destroy the seeds they eat, macaws act more as seed predators than seed dispersers, although they do sometimes drop or carry seeds away intact.

Behavior and communication

Scarlet macaws are social birds. They are usually seen in pairs or family groups flying over the canopy, and they gather in larger flocks at feeding trees, clay licks and communal roosts. Pairs fly so close together that their wingtips almost touch.

They are very loud. The usual call is a harsh, raucous squawk that carries over long distances through the forest and helps mates and flock members keep in touch. Like many parrots, captive scarlet macaws can learn to imitate human speech, but wild birds are not known to mimic other species.

Macaws climb as much as they fly. They clamber through branches using their zygodactyl feet, with two toes pointing forward and two back, and they use the bill as an extra grip. Mates spend a lot of time preening each other’s head and neck, which strengthens the pair bond.

Reproduction and nesting

Scarlet macaws are monogamous, and pairs usually stay together for years, probably for life. They nest in large cavities high in old trees, often in dead or dying trunks, and they do not build a nest inside. Suitable hollows are scarce, and pairs, other macaw species and other animals compete for them.

The female lays two to four white eggs, most often two or three, and incubates them for about three and a half to four weeks while the male brings her food. The chicks hatch naked and helpless. Both parents feed them by regurgitation, and the young leave the nest at about three months old. In many nests only one chick survives, as the youngest often starve.

Young macaws stay with their parents for up to a year or more, learning where to find food. They usually begin breeding at about three to five years old, and a pair normally raises at most one brood a year, sometimes only every second year. This slow breeding is one reason macaw populations recover slowly once they decline.

How long do scarlet macaws live?

Large macaws are famous for long lives, but reliable figures are fewer than popular claims suggest. The wild lifespan of scarlet macaws has not been measured well, because few individuals have been followed from hatching to death; adults with few predators probably live for several decades.

In captivity, scarlet macaws are often said to live 40–50 years. A survey of zoo longevity records for parrots by Brouwer and colleagues (2000) found a scarlet macaw still alive after more than 33 years, and longer reports of 60–75 years remain unverified. For how macaws compare with gray parrots, cockatoos and budgies, see How long do parrots live?

Predators and threats

Adult scarlet macaws have few predators thanks to their size and strong flight, but large eagles such as the harpy eagle, forest hawks and occasionally jaguars and other cats can take them. Eggs and chicks are more vulnerable to snakes, monkeys, toucans and other nest raiders.

The main threats come from people:

• Capture for the pet trade, especially the taking of chicks from nests, which often involves cutting down the nest tree.
• Loss and fragmentation of forest for cattle ranching, farming and logging, which also removes the old trees with nesting cavities.
• Hunting for meat and feathers in some areas.

Commercial international trade in wild scarlet macaws is banned because the species is listed on Appendix I of CITES, the highest level of protection under the international wildlife trade treaty.

Conservation status

The IUCN lists the scarlet macaw as Least Concern, because it still has an enormous range across the Amazon Basin and a large population, estimated at 50,000–499,999 individuals. The population trend is decreasing.

The picture is very different in Central America, where the species has vanished from much of its former range. The United States lists the northern subspecies, A. m. cyanopterus, as endangered under the Endangered Species Act, and estimates suggest only a few thousand birds of this subspecies remain in the wild.

Several projects are helping it recover. In Costa Rica, Mexico and Honduras, captive-bred and rescued macaws have been released into protected forest, and in southeastern Peru researchers have studied wild macaws for decades and installed artificial nest boxes to make up for the shortage of natural cavities. Ecotourism also helps, because living macaws at clay licks and nesting trees earn far more for local communities than captured birds.

Scarlet macaws and people

People have valued scarlet macaws for at least a thousand years. Archaeologists have found macaw skeletons at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico and evidence of macaw breeding pens at Paquimé in northern Mexico, far north of the species’ natural range, showing that live birds and feathers were traded over long distances. The Maya also depicted macaws in art, and the ruins of Copan in Honduras are now home to free-flying macaws once again.

Today the scarlet macaw is the national bird of Honduras and one of the best-known birds of the tropics. Its striking colors made it popular in aviculture, but its long life, loud calls and strong bill make it a demanding companion, and the trade in wild-caught birds has done lasting damage. Its loyalty to one partner also earns it a place among animals that mate for life.

Myths and facts

• “Macaws are always in huge flocks.” In most of their range scarlet macaws are seen in pairs or small family groups; large gatherings form mainly at clay licks, roosts and fruiting trees.
• “Scarlet macaws live 100 years.” There is no verified record of any macaw reaching 100. Even the long-lived captive birds documented by zoos fall far short of that.
• “Eating clay is a sign of illness.” At clay licks it is normal, regular behavior shared by many healthy parrots, and it is linked to the birds’ diet and mineral needs.