Blue & gold macaw

The Blue and Gold Macaw is a large South American parrot with mostly blue top parts and yellow underparts. Macaws are a large group of neotropical parrots. There are more than 350 parrot species, but macaws are the largest of them all.

Their feathers are primarily blue on the top of their bodies, yellow or light orange in the ventral part, and individuals normally have some green feathers on their head. They have a white facial disc with fine lines of black feathers and a strong black beak. The feathers that grow in lines on their white facial disk are individual and are similar to human fingerprints.

Their tongues are scaly and dry and don’t look anything like ours, they even have a bone in them which is used for tapping into fruits. They have extremely strong beaks which are capable of cracking open coconuts. Their bite force is comparable to that of a lion.

Their diet is made up of at least 50% fruit and plant matter such as leaves, flowers and buds. Rest will always be made up of small amounts of seeds, nuts and insects. They have also been known to lick clay which is thought to neutralise the toxins from some of the fruits they eat as well as aiding digestion.