Spix's macaw
| Spix's macaw | |
|---|---|
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| Mounted specimen in Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Psittaciformes |
| Superfamily: | Psittacoidea |
| Family: | Psittacidae |
| Subfamily: | Arinae |
| Tribe: | Arini |
| Genus: |
Cyanopsitta Bonaparte, 1854 |
| Species: | C. spixii |
| Binomial name | |
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Cyanopsitta spixii (Wagler, 1832) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Ara hyacinthinus Spix, 1824 |
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Ara hyacinthinus Spix, 1824
Cyanopsittacus spixi Salvadori, 1891
Sittace spixii Wagler, 1832
Cyanopsitta spixi Helmayr, 1906
Ara spixi Peters, 1937
Spix's macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii), also known as the little blue macaw, is a macaw native to Brazil. It is a member of Arini tribe in the subfamily Arinae (Neotropical parrots), part of the family Psittacidae (the true parrots). It was first described by German naturalist Georg Marcgrave, when he was working in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil, in 1638 and it is named for German naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix, who collected a specimen in 1819 on the bank of the Rio São Francisco in northeast Bahia in Brazil.
The bird is a medium-size parrot weighing about 300 grams (0.66 lb), smaller than most of the large macaws. Its plumage is various shades of blue, with a grey-blue head, light blue underparts, and vivid blue upperparts. Males and females are almost identical in appearance, however the females are slightly smaller on average.
The species inhabited riparian Caraibeira (Tabebuia aurea) woodland galleries in the drainage basin of the Rio São Francisco within the Caatinga dry forest climate of interior northeastern Brazil. It had a very restricted natural habitat due to its dependence on the tree for nesting, feeding and roosting. It fed primarily on seeds and nuts of Caraiba and various Euphorbiaceae (spurge) shrubs, the dominant vegetation of the Caatinga. Due to deforestation in its limited range and specialized habitat, the bird has been rare in the wild throughout the twentieth century. It has always been very rare in captivity, partly due to the remoteness of its natural range.
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