Jan-Feb 2010, Volume 20 Issue 1

Going on appearances, science traditionally looks for external features (morphology) that unite groups of animals. Rosellas provide a convenient feature in this respect: the blue cheeks, the white cheeks and the single yellow-cheek, the Western Rosella. Let’s focus on the ‘crimson-blue cheeks’ for a moment, as they show us some complex and intriguing relationship patterns.

The Blue-throated Macaw is distributed only on private ranch land of Beni (see figure 1) which is the largest department in Bolivia with an area of 120,000 km2. This area is classified as the Llanos de Moxos habitat (locally referred to as Pampas-savannas). The habitat is a mosaic of habitat types dominated by savannas with patches/fragments of dry forest, raised forest islands, gallery forest, and marshes. The forested areas are influenced by surrounding Chaco and Cerrado habitats.

Kakarikis are inquisitive and lively birds which are comparable in their behaviour to lories and caiques but at the same time display a very placid nature. The cock in particular will investigate all corners of his enclosure and they will open doors or squeeze their way through any opening that they can find. Unfortunately, if they escape from the enclosure their urge to explore means that they tend not to stay around the aviary and are usually never found.