A large South American parrot with bright blue upperparts and yellow underparts.
The facial skin is white, with narrow dark striped markings around the eyes.
Blue-and-yellow macaws can flatten or ruffle their head feathers. The bare skin around the eye can also vary in redness. Their appearance changes as well as their voice.
At a French zoo, five hand-reared birds aged one to four years, all below sexual maturity, were observed in April–May 2017. A familiar caretaker looked at and talked to each bird for two minutes, then turned away for two minutes. During mutual interaction, crown feathers were more ruffled and the skin around the eye was judged redder. When the caretaker turned away, birds more often sought contact, including grasping clothing.
Nape feathers showed no clear difference between the two situations, giving different results for the crown and the back of the neck. The authors identified further questions about how feather and skin changes relate to emotion or signals to another individual.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.
In Trinidad’s Nariva Swamp, wild-caught macaws from Guyana were released in 1999–2004 to restore a locally lost population. The implementers’ 2013 report documented subsequent breeding and monitoring by trained residents from neighbouring communities. Chick poaching and the felling of nest trees remained concerns. The authors called for detailed documentation of releases and an effective plan to continue checking survival and breeding afterwards.