What is Macaw?
{{Taxobox | name = Macaw | image = Sc Macaw.jpg | image_width = 300px | image_caption = A [[Scarlet macaw]] in flight | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | classis = [[bird|Aves]] | ordo = [[Psittaciformes]] | familia = [[true parrots|Psittacidae]] | subfamilia = [[Psittacinae]] }} [[File:Ara chloropterus -Manu National Park, Peru -flying-8.jpg |thumb|right|300px|Formation team flying: ''[[Red-and-green macaw|Ara chloropterus]]'']] A '''macaw''' is a [[New World]] [[parrot]]. Some of the species are large birds, the largest of the parrots. Macaws are native to [[Mexico]], [[Central America]], [[South America]], and formerly the [[Caribbean]]. Macaws, like all parrots, are unusually intelligent birds. The usual thing for parrots is to pair for life. They stay together even out of the mating season. They often fly in formation, one above the other. ==Diet and clay licks== [[File:Parrots at a clay lick -Tambopata National Reserve, Peru-8c.jpg|thumb|right|Macaws and [[mealy amazon]]s at a clay lick in Tambopata National Reserve, [[Peru]]]] [[File:Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus -Mato Grosso -Brazil-8b.jpg|thumb|right|The [[hyacynth macaw]]]] Macaws eat a variety of foods including seeds, nuts, fruits, palm fruits, leaves, flowers, and stems. Wild species may forage widely, over {{convert|100|km|0|abbr=on}} for some of the larger species such as ''Ara araurana'' (blue & yellow macaw) and ''Ara ambigua'' (great green macaw), in search of seasonally available foods. In the western [[Amazon Basin|Amazon]], hundreds of macaws and other parrots descend to exposed river banks to lick clay almost daily,<ref>Munn C.A. 1994. Macaws: winged rainbows. ''National Geographic'', '''185''', 118–140.</ref> {{ndash}} except on rainy days.<ref>Brightsmith D.J. 2004. Effects of weather on parrot geophagy in Tambopata, Peru.'' Wilson Bulletin''. '''116''', 134–145.</ref> It was suggested that parrots and macaws in the Amazon basin eat clay from exposed river banks to neutralize [[toxin]]s.<ref>Gilardi J.D. 1996. Ecology of parrots in the Peruvi