   #copyright

Spix's Macaw

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Birds

                  iSpix's Macaw

                             Conservation status

   Critically endangered (CR)
            Scientific classification

   Kingdom:   Animalia
   Phylum:    Chordata
   Class:     Aves
   Order:     Psittaciformes
   Family:    Psittacidae
   Subfamily: Arinae
   Genus:     Cyanopsitta
              Bonaparte, 1854
   Species:   C. spixii

                                Binomial name

   Cyanopsitta spixii
   ( Wagler, 1832)

   The Spix's Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii) is the only member of the parrot
   genus Cyanopsitta. This macaw was found in Brazil, in the north part of
   the state Bahia. The species went extinct in the wild around 2000, when
   the last male bird died , however, there is a captive population of
   some 68 individuals . Most of these individuals are bred in captivity.
   Of these individuals, only 9 are found in breeding programs of zoos;
   two birds are in Loro Parque, Tenerife, Spain and seven birds are in
   the Sao Paulo Zoo, Brazil. The pair at the Loro Parque produced two
   young in 2004. The aim of the breeding program is to eventually
   reintroduce this species back to the wild. Some 47 animals belong to
   Sheikh Saoud Bin Mohammed Bin Ali Al Thani in Doha, Quatar, who
   acquired them from private keepers in the Philippines and Switzerland
   and founded the Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation Centre. It runs its own
   breeding program which has produced 12 young so far, 7 of them in 2006.

   This bird is a delicate, blue-grey macaw with long tail and wings. It
   has a pale ashy-blue head, distinctively square shaped, and pale blue
   underparts. Its upperparts, wings and long tail are a more vivid blue.

   The decline of the species is attributed to hunting and trapping of the
   birds, destruction of its habitat, and the introduction of the
   Africanized bee, which competes for nesting sites and killed breeding
   individuals at the nest. The three last birds were captured for trade
   in 1987 and 1988. A single male, paired with a female Blue-winged
   Macaw, was discovered at the site in 1990. A female Spix's Macaw
   released from captivity at the site in 1995 disappeared after seven
   weeks. The last wild male died probably at the site in October 2000.

   This bird is named for the German naturalist Johann Baptist von Spix.
   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spix%27s_Macaw"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
