Hyacinth Macaws

Brazil

About 15 minutes from the Hyacinth Valley Camp is our large, custom-built photoblind in front of a feeding spot for a large flock of Hyacinth Macaws. Daybreak and we all aim to be in the blind by this hour, well before the first macaws arrive to eat palm nuts in an attractive natural clearing in the dry forest. The blind is large enough for 18 people, with 10 front row seats.

The Hyacinth Macaw is adapted to ground feeding specifically to find these palm nuts at or near the ground. These particular palm trees, which have an underground trunk, presents their nuts in bunches at ground level. The palms develop their trunks underground to protect them from the dry season fires that sweep across this region each year between May and October.

As each birds hops down to the ground, it grabs a palm nut and gnaws on it. In many cases, the huge blue bird takes the nut back up to a comfortable perch in a low bush or tree and works on it assiduously for a number of minutes before it finally either cracks it open or gives up and hops down to look for a more tractable nut. Often we see macaws engaging in play behavior or jockeying for position on favorite perches in the low bushes and trees just above the nuts.

To have dozens of the world's largest and most spectacular parrots in excellent light right in front of your blind with such a marvelous natural setting is a real privilege--and your visit and support makes all this possible. Just a few years ago these same birds were the target of organized trapping, but now, thanks to the Kaytee Avian project, these birds can eat and live in peace in this whole region of cliffs and dry forest.