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Great Green Macaw Ara ambiguus Scientific name definitions

Nigel Collar, Peter F. D. Boesman, and Christopher J. Sharpe
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Text last updated February 19, 2016

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Introduction

Treated as globally Endangered, the Great Green Macaw is, as its name suggests, a very large and predominantly green-colored macaw. There is a red frontal band above its huge black bill, and a bare facial area lined with black. The flight feathers are blue above and olive below, and the lower back is also blue, whilst the tail is orange tail. Two subspecies are generally recognized, one principally in Central America, between Honduras and northwest Colombia, and the other in western Ecuador. Its strongholds appear to be in far eastern Panama and adjacent Colombia, where large tracts of intact forest remain. Numbers in Costa Rica and Ecuador, in particular, have shrunk to perilously low levels in recent years, but these populations are the subject of intensive conservation efforts.

Subspecies


SUBSPECIES

Ara ambiguus ambiguus Scientific name definitions

Distribution

E Honduras and Nicaragua through Costa Rica and Panama to NW Colombia.

SUBSPECIES

Ara ambiguus guayaquilensis Scientific name definitions

Distribution

W Ecuador (Esmeraldas and Guayas).
Distribution of the Great Green Macaw - Range Map
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  • Year-round
  • Migration
  • Breeding
  • Non-Breeding
Distribution of the Great Green Macaw

Recommended Citation

Collar, N., P. F. D. Boesman, and C. J. Sharpe (2020). Great Green Macaw (Ara ambiguus), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.grgmac.01
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