DISTRIBUTION, IDENTIFICATION

Discovery of the home of the Indigo Macaw in Brazil

with notes on field identiffcation of "blue" macaws

Helmut Sick and Dante Martins Teixeira

Introduction

HEINDIGO MACAW, Anodorhynchus !eari, has long been regarded as one of the biggest South American ornitho- logical mysteries. This macaw, described more than 100 years ago, has been known only through specimens which appeared very rarely in the commerce with living birds. It was not possible to obtain further information concerning the origin of this macaw than simply "Brazil." The birds were offered for sale, e.g., in Be16m, Par•, and exported to Europe or the United States. The Indigo Macaw was always the pride of the wealthiest public and private zoos in the world. The fact that the Indigo Macaw is one of three quite similar speciesof all-blue macaws (Hyacinthine, Glaucous and Indigo Macaw), has been the source of much confusion, even among scientists. The splendid Hyacinthine, Anodor- IndigoMacaws. Anodorhynchusleari, in fiight. Photo/DanteMartins Teixeira. hynchus hyacinthinus, Latham, 1790, from interior central and southern The Indigo Macaw, Anodorhynchus States,did Sickfeel sureabout the prob- Brazil (and adjacent eastern Bolivia -- !earl Bonaparte, 1856, is medium-sized lem, and could he inform colleagues R. S. Ridgely,pers. comm.}, the biggest UI cm). who were especiallyinterested, such as (total length 93 cm) of all macaws,is the There is still a fourth blue species,the J. M. Forshaw (1973). only blue macaw which is well known. It Little Blue Macaw, Cyanopsitta spixii is frequently displayed in aviaries and (Waglet, 1832), rangingin interior north- HEESSENTIAL FINDINGS concerning collections around the world. eastern Brazil. It has very little similar- (1.) appearance, and (2.) zoogeo- The GlaucousMacaw, Anodorhynchus ity to the true macaws, but can confuse graphicalconclusions, are the following: glaucus, Vieillot, 1816, is the smallest people who know only prepared spec- (1.) The most important morpholog- (68 cm) of the blue macaws. In the last imens; it lacks yellow on the face (see ical character of these macaws is the century it was common in certain parts below). bare yellow area at the base of the man- of Paraguay and adjacent regions, e.g., The difficulty of distinguishingthe dible ("lower" mandible),useful only on the Paran• river. The last living bluemacaws has been felt very strongly in living specimens(the Glaucouswe did specimento have been seenby a scientist by the senior author. No one knew the not see alive, but there is no doubt that seems to have been an individual checked problemwell, and the literaturedealing it is, in this respect,very similar to the by Jean Delacour in the Jardin d'Accli- mainly with plumageis not clear. Only Indigo). Whereasthe Hyacinthine has a mation, in Paris, between 1895-1905 after having checkedmost of the mater- small band, turning narrowly around (pets. comm., Delacour to Sick, 1974). ial of glaucus and !eari existing in the mandible, the Glaucousand Indigo Recent surveysin Paraguay have revealed museums,and after having studied care- Macaws have a big and nearly trian- no evidence that this speciesstill exists fully mostof the Indigo Macawsliving gular yellow area. All three have a yel- (R. S. Ridgely, pets. comm.). in captivity in Europe and the United low periophthalmic area. The color of

118 AmericanBirds, March 1980 the plumage,used as a primary criterion author to find the Indigo Macaw in (in addition to the size of the birds) by nature. But several years passedbefore museum workers up to now, is only the necessary arrangements could be slightlydifferentiated and is difficult to made. Sponsored by the Academia describe. Brasileira de Ci•ncias, we visited, in (2.) The Glaucousand Indigo Macaws search of the Indigo Macaw, during are closelyrelated, and are geographical 1974 and 1976 some of the remaining representativesof a superspecies.They tributaries of the rio Sa• Francisco in are geographicallywidely separated,the northwestern Bahia. However, all we area between them is occupied by the could find were the Hyacinthine, which Hyacinthine which may possiblybe a there and in Piaui' reaches its eastern- younger offshoot of the group. The most limit. There, too, occurs (very relationshipof the Glaucousand Indigo locally) the Little Blue Macaw. Macaws seems also to be revealed by In 1977-78 we came to the conclusion their ecologicalanomalies: the Glaucous that the only place where the Indigo Macaw nested in river banks (Sanchez Macaw could have remained undis- Labrador 1767, Azara 1805, d'Orbigny covered was the Raso da Catarina in 1835), the Indigo Macaw in canyons. northeastern Bahia. Our doubts, how- However the Hyacinthine also nestsin ever, were very great. Could it be that cliffs in northwestern Bahia and in this region was so completelyoverlooked by scientists,and that there could hide, Even the approximate range of the for more than a century, a bird as large Indigo Macaw remaineduncertain until as a macaw? It was hardly believable. finally Oliv6rio Pinto (1950) found a The "Raso" is a white spot on the specimenin captivity in the interior of map of Brazil: no settlements,no roads, Pernambuco, which was said to have dried-up rivers. It is a plateau, cut by can- come from Juazeiro, northern Bahia. yons. Most of the area is covered by On a trio with R. S. Ridgely in 1977 that the Indigo Macaw was not a deep loose sand and dense "caatinga": (Sick had passed there in 1964), we "good" species, but rather a hybrid a low, frequently thorny vegetation, realized that in the area of Juazeiro no betweenthe Hyacinthine and the Glau- adapted to the extremely dry climate. macawscould possiblyoccur. The Indigo cous Macaws. This idea is now known The "Raso" was supposedto be impen- mentionedby Pinto was apparentlypur- to be unacceptable,on both morpholog- etrable. It certainly is inhospitable,owing chasedin Juazeiro, where we were told ical and distributional grounds. to its tremendous heat and the lack of Hyacinthineswere alsooffered for sale. water. Apparently it remains one of the Reflecting the general feeling that it Research in the field least known parts of Brazil. was indeed strange that no one could In Brazilian history the "Raso" has a find the Indigo Macaw in the wild, HEPUBLICATION OFVoous was the very bad reputation:it was the sceneof Voous (1965) developedthe bold theory strongest challenge for the senior the Canudo civil war (most of the sol- diersdied of thirst), and the hiding place of the infamous "cangaceiro" Lampiao (who could not be captured).

We left Rio de Janeiro on December 18, 1978, accompanied by Luiz A. Pedreira Gonzaga, working with us in the Museu Nacional, Rio. On December 29 we obtained the first actual material of the Indigo Macaw: flight feathers of a specimenshot someweeks before by a local hunter. It had been eaten. Two days later we ourselves finally met the no longer mysterious macaws in the field: three relatively small dark crea- tures with a big yellowish area at the base of their mandible, their voice amazingly weak for a macaw. During succeedingweel•s we observed up to 21 Indigo Macaws flying overhead in a single flock. We obtained informa- tion about its food, at that time partic- ularly the small nuts of the licuff-palm IndigoMacaws on a canyonledge in the"Raso" de Catarina, Bahia, Brazil. Note the large [yellow} mandibularpatch, which can clearlybe seenin flight. (Continuedon Page 212)

Volume34, Number2 119 (Continuedfrom Page119) first lndigo Macaw specimen from the been proven to be an endemic restricted wild with full data in a museum collec- to northeastern Bahia. (Coccus sp.), which the birds sometimes tion (Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro). obtained by walking on the ground. We stayed nearly a month in the area of Preservation They undertake long flights in search of the "Raso," sufficient time to com- their favorite foods. We reached roost- pletely delimit the range of the lndigo T ISA FORTUNATEcoincidence that a Macaw. First we worked in the southern federal Reserve, the "Estacao Eco- part of the area, later we approached 16gicado Raso de Catarina," established the region from the northeast. some years ago by S.E.M.A. (Secretaria The Indigo Macaw is the only macaw Especial do Meio Ambiente, Minist6rio which lives in that region. Neither the do Interior, under Dr. Paulo Nogueira Hyacinthinc, nor the Little Blue Macaw, Neto), includes part of the range of the nor any true macaw of the genus Ara Indigo Macaw. This very fortuitous cir- seems to reach the "Raso," where in cumstance convinced us not to conceal fact only a few Psittacines occur. our discovery, despite our fear of pos- Our stay in the "Raso" was success- sible depredations by illegal bird deal- ful only through the constant help of ers. We suggested to the Government our local guides. During a certain inter- that they enlarge the Reserve "Raso" in val, a tractor was the only vehicle able order to protect still more of the range to negotiate the deep sand. Ultimately of the Indigo Macaw. we had to go on horseback (without sad- dle!) and to walk. Acknowledgments In a more detailed paper we will deal with several other aspectsof this area, Our warmest thanks to the World such as the fauna in general and the Wildlife Fund which funded our expedi- flora of the "Raso." This will provide tion, in particular the efforts of Thomas A canyonin the rugged"Raso" country,from further details concerning the existence E. Lovejoy, who enabled us to obtain above. of the Indigo Macaw, which has now funding at the right time. ing places of the macaws, situated in Literature cited hollowsin the upperpart of the grotesquely eroded walls of the canyons. In such a AZARA, F. DE. 1805. Apuntamientos para place, where the birds arrive just before la historia natural de los Pajaros del dusk, we counted up to 18 individuals. Paraguay y Rio de la Plata. Madrid. Here we could study completely undis- FORSHAW, J. M. 1973. Parrots of the turbed, as they climbed on the vertical World. Melbourne. ORBIGNY, A. DE. 1835. Voyage dans rock face and defended themselves l'Amerique Meridionale, vol. I. Paris. againstthe denseswarms of flies flying PINTO, O. 1950. Sobre a verdadeira p•tria around them. On the ground we obtained de Anodorhynchus leari Bonap. Pap6is additional molt feathers of the macaws. avuls. Zool. S. Paulo IX, 24:364-365. We recorded the voice and took photo- SANCHEZ LABRADOR. 1767. Peces y Aves del Paraguay Natural. Buenos Aires graphs. The hollows in the canyons 1968. serve also for nesting (later in the year). SICK, H. Aves do Brasil-Introduqao • Orni- For the preservationof the macawsit is tologia Brasileira. Academia Brasileira important that theseplaces remain com- de Cit•ncias. Rio de Janeiro. VOOUS, K. H. 1965. Specimens of Lear's pletelyinaccessible to people. Macaw in the Zoological Museum of Amsterdam. L'Oiseau et R.F.O. 35, n ø. O DEFINITELYPROVE our findings, we collected one specimen(January Members of the expeditionbelow a typical --Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, bol- 16, 1979), a wonderful adult male, the "!eari" cliff. sista do CNPq.

$1st Audubon Christmas Bird Count

Saturday,December 20, 1980 throughSunday, January 4, 1981 A 16-day, three-weekendperiod

212 American Birds, March 1980