Psittacidae (Parrots)

Hispaniolan or Cuban Macaw Ara tricolor Bechstein, 1811

• RMNH 110.095: Cuba.

Blushing bird
As many other macaws, the Hispaniolan Macaw was favoured as a cage bird, though local people also hunted it for its meat. The combination of factors led to its extinction. The bird occurred in Cuba and Hispaniola, and some believe that it also inhabited Jamaica. This assumption is based on a red macaw which was shot in 1765. Unfortunately, this skin was lost so it is impossible to determine whether it was indeed identical to the birds from Cuba and Hispaniola. On the basis of old descriptions, it has been proposed to treat the parrots from the latter island as a separate subspecies, since their bill is somewhat smaller and the bare parts of the face have a slightly different coloration. The latter feature is of little use, since the colour of the cheeks of a parrot may change with its moods. A parrot which becomes aggressive or excited will start to 'blush'.

The last record of the Hispaniolan Macaw was of a specimen shot on Cuba in 1864 at La Vega, in the neighbourhood of Zapata Swamp. The species may have survived for another 20 years or so.

Museum specimens
Only 19 specimens of the Hispaniolan Macaw remain. They are in museums in New York, Washington, Havana, Tring, Paris and Vienna. The provenance of the Leiden specimen is unknown. It is simply labelled 'Cuba'.

« Previous | Next » | Index

Content: © 2005 Naturalis. Photography and website: ETI BioInformatics. Funding: NLBIF.