Parrots: The Scarlet Macaw

Photo taken at the Queens Zoo. These birds are tropical animals residing mostly in Mexico, Central and South America and formerly in the Caribbean. When seeing these birds many people associate these animals as residing in the rainforest. Although the home is primarily rainforest settings, some birds prefer woodland areas and savannah like habitats. Savannah habitats maintain a grassland ecosystem consisting of trees that are widely spaced apart, the canopy never closes allowing sunlight to reach the ground. The diet of these birds consist of seeds, nuts, fruits, palm fruits, leaves, flowers and stems, although a specific tropical bread of Macaws ingest mud/clay as well from the Amazon river banks. It is believed that consuming the mud helps the birds combat some of the poison fruits that they eat and strengthens the shell of their eggs.

In recent years it has been reported that the Macaw species are becoming endangered in the wildlife. Out of the nineteen species, it is believed that two are extinct and two may been in critical danger or extinct. Little Blue Macaw (Spix’s Macaw) and the Glaucous Macaw are believed to be in critical danger or extinct, with the Little Blue Macaw being extinct in the wildlife. The Saint Croix Macaw and the Cuban Red Macaw are extinct.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaw#External_links; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savanna