Blue Hyacinth Macaw – Looks, Diet, Breeding, and Behavior

Last Updated on July 28, 2022

Macaws are beautiful creatures with more than 18 types, but blue hyacinth macaws are the most demanded and famous among bird lovers. The reason for their high demand is their pleasing appearance and their friendly nature with humans. Further in this article, I will discuss blue hyacinth macaw – looks, Diet, Breeding, and behavior

Blue Hyacinth Macaw

The Blue Hyacinth Macaw is one of the species of hyacinth macaw, and they are famous for their dark blue color, which creates a distinguishing factor from other birds. Just like the color blue, they are renowned for their calmness and friendly behavior.

Classification of Blue Hyacinth Macaw 

The scientific name of this species is Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus. The classification of Blue hyacinth macaw is:

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum:   Chordata
• Class:        Aves
• Order:        Psittaciformes 
• Family:      Psittacidae 
• Genus:      Anodorhynchus 

How Does a Blue Hyacinth Macaws Look? 

Blue hyacinth is a multi-colored macaw that makes him versatile among all macaws species. The body is covered with a lot of dark blue feathers. The feathers are black, but when light passes through them, it looks dark blue. 

In the case of the Head part, the neck is generally grey. The beak is black colored. The eyes are black, but a beautiful yellow-colored ring around the eyes makes these birds so lovely. The yellow-colored feathers are also present near the bottom of the beak.

The tail of the blue hyacinth is pointed. While the feet of blue hyacinth macaws have two claws pointing forward and two claws pointing behind.

Can you differentiate between Male and female Blue Hyacinth Macaw?

Only experts can differentiate a male and female blue macaw. An ordinary person cannot distinguish them by their appearance because there is no major difference between them.

The other way to differentiate male and female blue macaws is by DNA testing. 

Voice of Blue Hyacinth macaws 

The blue hyacinth macaws make two types of voice, sometimes they make soft and deep growls just like pigeons, and sometimes they make loud voices. When they are alone, they are not annoying, but when they are in pairs or in folk, they use a high-pitched sound to communicate. While in alarming situations, they make loud cries to express their feelings to others.

Size of a Blue Hyacinth macaws 

The blue hyacinth macaws are the greatest parrots in the case of length on planet earth. From the pointed tail to the elevated part of the head, the total length of the blue hyacinth is 100cm. Each feather of blue hyacinth macaw has a size of 380mm to 425mm.

Weight of a Blue Hyacinth Macaws 

As blue hyacinth is the longest parrot in the plant world, it is also the heaviest. It weighs from a lower weight of 1.5 kg to 1.7kg. Due to these characteristics, it also needs big strong bird cages.

Where Do Blue Hyacinth Macaws Live? 

The blue hyacinth macaws generally like to live on edges and along rivers in their habitat regions. Due to this, large numbers of blue hyacinth macaws are found in the outer parts of rainforests and grasslands, such as savannah grasslands. They also love to live in woodlands with small numbers of trees and less humidity, such as the woodlands of South America.

What Do Blue Hyacinth Macaws Eat? 

In the wild, Blue hyacinth macaws love to eat palm nuts of two specific types of palm trees. The coating outside palm nuts is tough to break, so blue hyacinths have a unique way to find nuts. They look for the nuts in cattle dough which is indigestible for cattle. Cattle do the half work for blue hyacinth macaws as they break the outer shell of nuts found in the dough, and it is now easy for these macaws to eat. They also love to eat fruits, vegetables, and almonds when they don’t have nuts to eat

In captivity, the dedicated owners feed them with a balanced diet and parrot pellets. A balanced diet consists of fruits, nuts, and vegetables with balanced proportions for the bird. The owners who are not capable of making a perfectly balanced diet, feed them with parrot pellets (Special food made by experts for the respective bird). 

Breeding Behavior of Blue Hyacinth Macaws

The blue hyacinth macaws breed between the months of July and December. These birds love to live in pairs.

Nests are made during breeding months on the trees at the height of 4meters to 14meters above the ground. The main reason for this height is fear of predators.

Female blue hyacinth macaw lays two eggs in the nest. Incubation periods generally take 25 to 30 days. The eggs are taken care of by females, and males provide food during this period. After hatching (the process from which a chick emerges from an egg), the chicks are provided food by parents, and it takes 13 weeks to fledge, and they live up to 18 months with parents.

The lifeSpan of Blue Hyacinth Macaws

The lifespan of blue hyacinth macaws depends on whether they live in the wild or captivity.

In the wild, blue hyacinth generally has a lifespan of 30 years because of the threats they face in the wild, for example, predators, etc

In captivity, they are given proper attention and proper care. And this is the reason they have a lifespan of over 50 to 60 years. As a result, most blue hyacinth macaws are captivated. These birds want more attention than any other macaws.

Blue Hyacinth Macaws Population

According to WWF, the population of wild macaws is increasing day by day, and it’s good news. In recent times, almost 6500 wild blue hyacinth macaws are present, and 5000 of them are present in Pantanal. 

In 1980, this species was endangered, and the blue hyacinth population was about 1500 to 3000 birds. But with time, their population has increased.  

Threats to Blue Hyacinth Macaws 

These are significant threats to blue hyacinth macaws that make these species endangered in recent times…

Predators:

Predators such as snakes and eagles threaten the chicks and eggs that continue the generation of blue hyacinth macaws. However, it’s a bit difficult for snakes to prey on them because of the fast speed of blue hyacinth.

Deforestation:

Another major threat to blue hyacinth macaws is clearing forests for farming and urbanization. When the forests are cleared, it is very difficult for them to fly away to safe places. If a single blue hyacinth reaches a safe place, then it means five died on the way.

Illegal trade:

Illegal trade is the biggest issue for this species as they are sold for almost $5000 to $10000 in the market. And due to their high cost, they become prey for humans. In 1980, illegal trade and capture was the main issue for their extinction danger. But later, laws were made to protect them.

How Much Blue Hyacinth Macaws Cost?

The blue hyacinth macaws are a bit more expensive than other macaws due to their appearance and behavior. The average cost of blue hyacinth is almost $10,000, but you can find them at a lower price of $8,000 and a higher price of $12,000. 

Conclusion:

To better understand blue hyacinth macaws, I tried to discuss their looks, diet, breeding behavior, lifespan, conservation status, and almost everything about them. I hope this article helped you in clearing your conclusion about blue hyacinth macaw.

If you enjoyed reading this article, you may also want to read about the Blue-Winged Macaw.