Green Wing Macaw Care Guide: Prices, Facts, Information and Personality

Information

The Green Wing Macaw is also called the Red and Green Macaw or Red and Blue Macaw and has the scientific name Ara chloropterus. They live in large parts of northern South America, including the countries of Brazil, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and the Guianas. They are adapted to live in many forests, including rainforest, lowland and upland forest, floodplains, and savannas. They are a social flock animal that likes to mate for life with their partner. The Green Wing Macaw is from the Ara genus and comes from the Psittacidae family of true parrots. They are 85 to 95 cm in size and weigh 1200 grams on average, although this can range from 1000 to 1700 grams.

Colors

The distinctive feature of the Green Winged Macaw is its wing feathers. These start as a rich red color near the shoulder tops. They then turn into a stripe of green and then end the wings with a strip of light blue. The rest of the head, body, and tail feathers have a full red color. They have white cheeks and a large beak that is pale on the top portion and then darker on the lower parts. Male and females can be hard to tell apart, so DNA testing is often used, although the males are slightly larger. See the Macaw in motion using the video below:

Sounds

The Green Wing Macaw is a loud bird with quite an expressive vocal range. They can squawk loudly and make contact calls to their flocks when they are on their own. You can also train them to talk and mimic a few words that you say. You can hear the bird using one of the options below:

Behavior

In comparison to other species of Macaw, the Green Wing is reasonably relaxed. However, the Macaw will still get quite lonely if it doesn’t get enough attention, and this can cause feather plucking.

As these birds like to mate for life, they may closely bond with you and consider you to be their mate. This can cause overbonding where the Macaw becomes territorial over one member of the family vs other members. Proper training can help prevent this issue, plus as intelligent creatures, these Macaws can be trained to talk, solve simple puzzles, and do several tricks. They have a good personality as a pet bird, but they still require a large amount of attention, energy, and training to make this work with you or your family.

Care

As a large-sized bird, you’ll also need a very large cage, which not only needs to be significant in size but also has thick bars that the Macaw’s powerful beak cannot easily bend. Our complete guide to getting the right Macaw Cage is available here. Other people sometimes consider soundproof cages or other soundproofing options because macaws can be so noisy.

The large beaks on the Green Wing make these birds unsuitable for people with a family since they could easily be startled and injure a small child. Their powerful beaks will also make short work of any toys and fragile items that you put in the cage; however, they are curious birds they fill still need a fresh supply of these items to keep their minds entertained. Overgrown beaks can become an issue that will need to be clipped by a trained medical professional.

These birds also like to be kept at a warm room temperature, so keep them at least 21 degrees celsius and consider using a bird warmer in the colder winter months.

Also, ensure the Green Wing Macaw gets enough exercise by providing it with several hours out of the cage each day. Provide bathing opportunities to help with their hygiene as well.

If you’re looking to breed a Green Wing Macaw, it will likely lay a clutch of 2 to 3 eggs. In the wild this is likely to be during Winter to Spring. These eggs will take 3 weeks to incubate and 3 months to fledge.

Health

As a Macaw, you need to watch out for Macaw Wasting Disease with this bird, where your parrot will suddenly lose weight. Other issues a Green Winged Macaw is susceptible to include Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease, and Psittacosis.

Lifespan

You can expect a Green Wing Macaw to live around 50 years of age, with unverified reports of some birds living up to 80 years of age. Good diet, exercise, attention, and socialization are vital ingredients to a long life for a Macaw.

Price

For a Green Wing Macaw, prices range from $2000 to $4500. The age, location, health, and markings on the bird will affect price, whereas the setup costs of cages, toys, perches, foods, and medicine also initially need to be considered. While not a threatened bird species currently, it is under threat from poaching and habitat loss and so you should still check that the breeder is registered and has the appropriate documentation.