Mary Allen
Anyone who brings a yellow and breasted macaw home calls one of the most colorful parrots their own, but also has an animal that demands a lot of attention, knowledge, and experience from its owner. After all, yellow-and-breasted macaws are exotic wild animals with great demands on their new owner and a very long life expectancy.
At Home in South America
The yellow and breasted macaw (Ara ararauna) belongs to the parrot family (Psittacidae) and here to the genus of macaws. The habitats of the yellow-and-breasted macaws are mainly found along rivers and wetlands throughout the tropical rainforest of South America. The yellow and breasted macaw reaches a length of 80 to 90 centimeters. These parrots weigh up to around 1,280 grams and live to be around 35-40 years old. There have also been specimens that were up to 100 years old.
Colorful Portrait
The yellow-breasted macaw has a radiant blue-yellow plumage. The belly, the chest, the lateral neck area, and the ear covers are colored lemon to orange-yellow. The entire back is light blue. The forehead is olive-green in color. The cheeks, which are bare except for a few striking black feather lines, are white, but can also turn pink when excited. Yellow and breasted macaws have a black throat spot, which is often bordered on the edge by olive-green feathers. The wing and tail feathers are colored light blue at the top and golden yellow at the bottom. The bill of the yellow-breasted macaw is “typical for the ara”, very strong and deep black in color. The iris is ivory-colored in adult birds and dark in young birds.
Yellow and Breasted Macaws Don’t Like to Be Alone
If you want to keep yellow and blue macaws appropriate to their species, you should definitely choose a pair. With macaw pairs in attractively designed aviaries, you can make behavioral observations that practically never occur when they are kept individually in cages. Animals kept alone, on the other hand, very often develop severe behavioral disorders. Yellow and breasted macaws are also very intelligent, demanding, and quite demanding. Tame animals need a lot of love, react to being spoken to, like to be petted and played with, and are quite jealous, both of their own species and of their humans.
The Variety on the Menu
The basic food of the yellow-breasted macaw consists of around 50 percent fruit and vegetables. The other half should be made up of seeds and sprouted grains (especially sunflower seeds). In addition, pellets and other feed supplements such as corn, boiled legumes, boiled potatoes, and animal protein complete the range. Nuts can be offered as a treat from time to time.
Since the wingspan of the yellow-breasted macaw is 80 to 90 centimeters, they need a lot of free space and have a need for regular free flight. An outdoor and indoor aviary, which are connected by a correspondingly wide opening, is ideal. Both aviaries should contain tree roots, natural branches, and plenty of material so that the animals can climb, gnaw and play. Many yellow and breasted macaws also like to bathe.