Hyacinth macaw and its relatives

Hyacinth macaw is the largest parrot in the world. His body reaches a meter in length, and the tail - sixty centimeters. Weigh such a bird from a kilogram of 200 grams to one and a half kilos. Its name was due to the blue aura of cobalt shade. Its black beak is massive and very strong. The parrot easily gnaws the wire, so its cage must be made of strong iron rods. The eyes of this species of ara are dark brown, almost black, with a circumglobular ring of golden color. Dark gray paws have four fingers, two of them look forward, and two look back. The golden wide strip is clearly visible on the base of the plug. The skin on the body is pale yellow.

This species of parrots is common in Paraguay, Bolivia, Brazil. Birds prefer gallery forests, savannahs, marsh forests with islands of palm trees. Outside the breeding season, they are kept in a clan of several dozen individuals. On the places of feeding and on clay shoals green, hyacinth and red ara fly together. These tropical handsome people have a similar diet: fruits, berries, water snails, nuts. On the shallows, they swallow pebbles and mineral clay rich clay to cleanse their stomach and intestines from toxins. The sounds of hyacinth giants produce piercing, croaking - "raa-aarr". These parrots are good flyers: usually they cross tens of kilometers from the place of spending the night to places of feeding.

This is a fairly rare bird. In their habitats they are often killed for the sake of beautiful plumage. They become prey for predators - snakes, eagles, felines. Now the hyacinth macaw disappears also because the area of forests where this species lives is decreasing. The offspring also very often do not survive: the eggs become a victim of ants, toucans and ravens, snakes, and the chicks compete with each other, and the elder pushes the younger out of the nest.

During the incubation of eggs the male feeds the female. Nestlings are born blind and naked, with parents remain about one and a half years. These inhabitants live in hot tropical forests on average about 70 years. Of these, ten years are spent on childhood and adolescence, the reproductive period lasts for 30 years , and the rest of the time is a rather long, mature life without worries.

Hyacinth macaws are kept in captivity except in zoos. Because of its large size and loud voice, like a scream of wailing, in a city apartment to keep such a pet is problematic. It requires a very large and extremely strong cage, but it would be better to build a veranda for the bird. These parrots are extremely afraid of colds - at temperatures below +10 ° C they begin to ache and die. A cage or an enclosure should contain a maximum of all sorts of bird's entertainments: rings, mirrors, ladders, bells, perches. Let your pet know no shortage of thick branches: in addition to the fact that they are played with them, they still sharpen their claws and beaks on the wood.

Buying a parrot is a very important and difficult task. If you want to purchase a chick from the hyacinth subspecies, then it should be done exclusively through the nurseries: there are bird-feeders, that is, absolutely manual and social animals. In addition, the nestlings in the nursery are ringed with an unmarked mark on which the name of the country, the nursery and the date of the birth of the individual are engraved. The young should have a shortened tail, a lighter beak and a supraclavicular. In both sexes, the color of plumage is the same, but the females are slightly smaller than males.

The hyacinth macaw has an inquisitive, trusting and affectionate disposition. It is a highly intelligent bird with a good memory. It is best to keep them in pairs. Unlike other brethren, hyacinth parrots need a diet, where there is a minimum of protein and a maximum of fat. Fruits and vegetables should only be additives, and the main food is fatty nuts, sunflower seeds, sprouted grain. Also it is necessary to give low-fat cottage cheese, oatmeal and even boiled chicken meat. These birds like to bathe in the rain or shower, adore when they are sprayed from the spray. Ara should be kept in perfect purity: wash the cage once a week, and complete disinfection twice a year.