8 October/ ovember 1986
Surgically sexed maleBuffon's macau.
Tail feathers ofthe Buffon 's macau' shou muchmore color and brightness than the darkmaroon and blue ofthe military macaw tailfeathers.
(Ara ambigua)
by Joanne AbramsonFort Bragg, California
Buffon's Macaw
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standing color difference occurs. TheBuffon's central and lateral tail feathersshow a brilliant rainbow of color. Thefeather portion close to the quill tip isbathed in red-orange, then orange, thana greenish-yellow, ending in a turquoisetip. The lateral feathers, in addition,have a bright gold area on the medianportion. The size of the Buffon's feathers in both length and width are larger,in proportion to the bird's size. Themilitary's feathers are a deep reddishbrown, tipped in deep turquoise.
If you compare one tail feather withthe photos, you should be able to verifyif you own a Buffon's or a military.
Distribution: Included in the following are excerpts from a report published by Traffic (USA) 1980 and based
Distribution range o/the Bu//on 'smacaw.
Distribution range o/the militarymacaw.
This article has been written in anattempt to clarify the differencesbetween the Buffon's macaw and themilitary macaw. Both species are verydistinct in their habits, social behaviorand in their physical appearance. In myopinion, the Buffon's should be classified as a separate species from themilitary. The Buffon's and the militaryare as distinct as the greenwing and thescarlet macaw. Both may be basicallygreen, but the similarity stops there.
The first of the problems encountered with the Buffon's macaw (Araambigua) is the varied names it hasbeen given. They have been called greatgreen macaws, grand green macaws,grand military (Buffon's) macaws [Low]and Ecuadorian (Chapman's Green) Ammilitaris quayaguilensis macaws[LOW]. I would like to call for a moratorium on new names for Ara anbigua,after all, how many names can one birdtolerate. Throughout this article thebefore mentioned bird will be calledBuffon's macaw.
Description: The Buffon's length is85 cm (34 in.). The military length is 70cm (28 in.).
Weight: The Buffon's weights rangefrom 1,264 grams (21bs. 13 oz.) to 1,587grams (31bs. 8 oz.). The military weightsrange from 650 grams [McDonald pers.comm.] to 1,051 grams [Galvin pers.comm.].
The Buffon's weigh up to 454 grams(1 lb.) heavier in size ~ As with all of thelarge macaws, it can take up to two yearsfor Buffon's to reach their full size andweight.
Head: The Buffon's head is muchlarger than the military with a darkernear-red facial patch that easily darkenswhen excited. The beak is also muchlarger than the military, giving anappearance similar to a greenwingmacaw.
Body Coloration: The Buffon's hasa lighter, lime green overall color. Themilitary has a darker green, frequentlywith a bluish-tinged head.
Tail: Here is where the most out-
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more humid forests in South America(Ridgely). Ridgely saw a morning flightconsisting of 80 birds in Columbia in1977.
Breeding: Neither of these birds hasbeen bred in adequate numbers. Considering the amount of militarys thathave been brought into the U.S. thereshould be far more producing. The firstbreeding in the U.S. of Buffon's wasaccomplished by Florence Gale inJune1982 (see A.F.A. Watchbird Oct/Nov1983). Ms. Gale did a remarkable job ofrecord keeping on the breeding of theBuffon's and is to be commended forallowing the parent birds to raise theirown young.
Over the past several years there havebeen attempts to interbreed the Buffon'swith militarys and other large macaws. Ifeel very strongly that the Buffon's andall the macaws should not be hybridized. With a little help from ads and awillingness to purchase other breeders'babies for future breeding stock, weshould be able to get a productivecaptive breeding program going. I donot advocate selling any of the babyBuffon's as pets. Their wild populationis so threatened that CITES placed themon the Appendix I list on Oct. 28, 1976.
Purchasing Buffon's: I urge anyoneinterested in buying Buffon's for breeding to attempt to see the bird first inorder to verify its authenticity. And, asalways, buy only from reputable people.
ReferencesForshaw, Joseph M., Parrots of the World, pp.
359-362, TEH. Publications, Inc., 1977Gale, Florence, From Pets to Parents (Buffon's
Macaws) A.EA, Watchbird, Vol. X, Number 5,Oct/Nov 1983
Low, Rosemary, The Parrots ofSouth America, pp.49-51.John Gifford, Ltd., 1972
Low, Rosemary, Parrots-Their Care andBreeding, pp. 379-381. Blandford Press, Ltd.,1980
Nilsson, Greta and Mack, David, Macaws: Tradedto Extinction? Status, Trade and Legislation,April 1980 Traffic U.S.A, Obtainable by conlacting (202) 293-4800
Pasquier, Roger E, Conservation ofNew WorldParrots, Proceedings of the JCBP ParrotWorking Group Meeting St, Lucia, 1980 Smithsonian Institution Press for the ImernalionalCouncil for Bird Preservation Technical Publication No. I
Ridgely, Robert S., A Report on the Status and Distribution ofMacaws and Related Parrots inMexico and Central America, The WorldWildlife Fund,Jan. 1977
Notes and Acknowledgments• Dale R. Thompson at Behavioral Sludy of
Birds, Ltd. states that the average weight of mature,surgically sexed Buffon's macaws is 1310.5 gramsfor males and 1264.7 grams for females based onweighing six males and six females at their facility.
My thanks are eXlended to the followingindividuals for their help in galhering data on Iheweights of Buffon's macaws: Chuck Galvin,DVM,; Scott McDonald, DVM.; Dale Thompson;and toJeffrey Miller for feather collecling.•
on a report by Robert S. Ridgely, for theWorld Wildlife Fund (1977). The fullreport is available through Traffic(USA).
Buffon's: The northern portion of therange is said to be southern Honduras.However, Monroe (1068) considers thisto be hypothetical due to the fact thatno actual specimens were taken of thebirds there. More likely, according toRidgely (1977), is that the range starts inNicaragua. Ridgely felt that the Nicaragua portion of the Buffon's range waslikely the most sizable of any othersingle country. He found them to be a,"rather solitary species - I have neverseen more than six at once:' He alsonotes that the scarlet as well as theBuffon's occur sympatrically in parts ofeastern Nicaragua, as well as a small areaon Panama's pacific slope. He felt thatthe larger bill of the Buffon's wasprobably responsible for the lack ofcompetition with the scarlet for foodand territory. Not surprisingly, as withall the macaws, deforestation looms asthe single most significant threat to theBuffon's survival. Ridgely felt that if aportion of their range could be preserved that there was a chance that theycould continue to do well in the wild.However, since his report, the currentconflicts in Nicaragua are not conduciveto bird sanctuaries. They also range intoCosta Rica, Panama, Columbia, and asmall isolated population in Ecuadorgiven the separate subspecies name ofAm ambigua quayaquilensis. Forshawstates that this subspecies has' 'a smaller,narrower bill, undersides of tail andflight feathers more greenish:' Only twofemales were examined, no males wereexamined. I have had several people tellme that there is a smaller subspecies ofambiqua, which they refer to as thequayaquilensis subspecies, but to date Ihave found no literature that states thebody size is smaller, only that the billsize is smaller. It is possible that thesmaller birds could be immatures, butthose that I have been shown have been,unfortunately, militarys. The Buffon'sfavor tropical rain forests, although theyhave been seen in clearings and semiopen country.
The militarys, by comparison, rangethroughout much of Mexico, then arenext found in northern Colombia,northern Venezuela, eastern Ecuador,portions of Peru, Bolivia and northwes~ernArgentina (Ridgely). Accordingto Ridgely, the species does not occur inCentral America, which is where themajori.t~of the Buffon's range occurs.The mlhtary prefers tropical and deciduous forest near rivers in Mexico and,
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