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Reference: ITIS 177653, 177659 as of 2002-07-15 | ||||||||||||
Macaws eat nuts and fruit and can destroy trees, so if kept as pets they should be provided with twigs to break. The Blue-and-gold Macaw has feathers which are blue on one side and yellow on the other.
Parrots are zygodactyl, like woodpeckers, having 4 toes on each foot - two front and two back.
Other varieties of Macaw include the Scarlet Macaw, the Military Macaw, the Yellow-collared Macaw, the Severe Macaw, the Green-winged Macaw, and the Hahn Macaw.
Pictured here is a domestically-bred Blue-and-gold (1991) living in North Carolina USA with his host humans. Of the many different varieties, only the Blue-and-gold Macaw is not endangered in the wild. The greatest problems threatening the macaw population are the rapid rate of deforestation, a low rate of reproduction, and the popularity of the colorful birds in zoos and as pets.