Ara ararauna Luc Viatour🦜

Photo: Luc Viatour · CC BY 2.0

SpeciesPsittaciformesPsittacidae
Birds

🦜Blue-and-yellow Macaw

Ara ararauna (Linnaeus, 1758)

The blue-and-yellow macaw, also known as the blue-and-gold macaw, is a large Neotropical parrot with a mostly blue dorsum, light yellow/orange venter, and gradient hues of green on top of its head. It is a member of the large group of neotropical parrots known as macaws. It inhabits forest, woodland, and savannah of tropical Central and South America, as well as the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean. They are popular in aviculture because of their striking color, ability to talk, ready availability in the marketplace, and close bonding to humans. It is the most commonly kept macaw species in captivity worldwide as a pet or companion parrot and is also the cheapest among the large macaws. As of 2025, there are 1 million blue and gold macaws living in captivity worldwide, one of the highest populations of any large parrot in captivity.

Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Videos
3
Photos
3
Measurements
10
vs you
≈ 1/55th of your weight
Conservation status
LCLeast concern

IUCN Red List assessment, 2018.

Population trendDecreasing
Key measurements
Body mass
1.13 kg
Body length
not recorded
Shoulder height
not recorded
Top speed
not recorded
Bite force
not recorded
Maximum lifespan
43 years
All measurements ↓
Facts and figures

Everything we know about the Blue-and-yellow Macaw

Typical adult figures. Where a value is an estimate rather than a measurement, it says so.

Body mass
1.13 kg
AVONET
Other figures ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Figures vary

  • 1.03 kgAnAgeAnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR)data quality: acceptable
Tail length
0.49 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Wing length
0.38 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Beak length
0.07 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Tarsus length
0.03 m
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Maximum lifespan
43 years
AnAge
Details ↓

data quality: acceptable

Source: AnAge · AnAge build 15, 2023-07-03 (HAGR) · CC BY 3.0

Trophic level
Herbivore
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Habitat
Forest
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Lifestyle
Insessorial
AVONET
Details ↓

Source: AVONET · v1.1 (Tobias et al. 2022) · CC BY 4.0

Volume l
1.1 Laverage
Details ↓

Body mass at ~1.0 kg/L, the density of vertebrate tissue.

average = a mean across sexes or species in a group.

Not recorded for Blue-and-yellow Macaw yet: body length, shoulder height, top speed, bite force.

Where it sits

Family tree

  1. kingdomAnimalia
  2. ›phylumChordata
  3. ›classAves
  4. ›orderPsittaciformes
  5. ›familyPsittacidae
  6. ›genusAra
  7. ›speciesAra ararauna
Full lineage
  1. orderSauria
  2. classBirds · Aves
  3. orderParrots · Psittaciformes
  4. genusAra
All 11 branches ↓
  1. kingdomMetazoa
  2. phylumChordata
  3. subphylumCraniata
  4. subphylumVertebrata
  5. superclassGnathostomata
  6. superclassSarcopterygii
  7. superclassTetrapoda
  8. orderSauria
  9. classBirds · Aves
  10. orderParrots · Psittaciformes
  11. genusAra
More

More about the Blue-and-yellow Macaw

In other languages
ara ararauna (cs), Guacamai blau (ca), Blågul Ara (da), Gelbbrustara (de), Ara ararauna (es), sinikelta-ara (fi) … and 27 more languages

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