FAMILY PSITTACIDAE 65 



ARA ARARAUNA (Linnaeus): Blue-and-yellow Macaw; 

 Guacamayo Azul y Amarillo 



Psittacus Ararauna Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 96. (Pernam- 

 buco, Brazil.) 



Large ; blue above, yellow underneath. 



Description. — Length 750 to 830 mm. Adult, forecrown and a line 

 on either side light green ; rest of upper surface blue, with the pri- 

 maries and secondaries darker ; under tail coverts dull blue ; several 

 lines across bare skin of side of head, and a broad band across fore- 

 neck dull olivaceous black; rest of under surface, including the under 

 wing coverts, orange-yellow ; under surface of primaries, secondaries, 

 and tail yellow, varying to olivaceous with changing angle of view. 



Immature, like the adult, except for brownish gray on wing coverts 

 and upper tail coverts ; under tail coverts duller blue, tipped with 

 orange-yellow. 



Iris yellow ; bill black ; bare skin of side of head white ; tarsus, toes, 

 and claws black. 



Measurements. — Males (8 from Darien, Colombia, and Venezuela), 

 wing 360-392 (379.7), tail 424-513 (471.1), oilmen from cere 61.0- 

 68.8 (66.2), tarsus 33.7-37.7 (36.1) mm. 



Females (5 from Darien, Colombia, and Venezuela), wing 349-393 

 (368.4), tail 395-553 (441.4), culmen from cere 58.5-64.5 (61.7), 

 tarsus 33.0-36.4 (35.1) mm. 



Resident. Local, in small numbers, in the less settled areas from 

 the upper Rio Bayano to eastern Darien (mainly in the drainage of 

 the Tuira and Chucunaque Rivers) ; Cerro Pirre. 



For many years the only published report of this macaw for Panama 

 was of one from Chepo sent by Arce to Osbert Salvin in 1864, a 

 specimen now in the British Museum. It was, therefore, a pleasant 

 surprise in 1959 to find them fairly common in the Tuira Valley at 

 Boca de Paya, and along the Rio Chucunaque near the mouth of the 

 Tuquesa. In January 1961, I recorded them on Cerro Pirre, and in 

 1964 noted them occasionally at Pucro, and higher up on the Rio 

 Tacarcuna. One of my memories is of an early morning journey in a 

 small plane, when between El Real and La Palma we passed over a 

 pair of these macaws in flight with the blue of their backs and wings 

 showing clearly in the slanting rays of the rising sun, against the green 

 of the forest. They still remain along the upper Rio Bayano, as 

 through Eustorgio Mendez I have examined a male killed January 20, 

 1966, about 50 kilometers above Chepo. 



