These Birds are Bananas for Bananas!
Get to know some semi-wild macaws of Caracas
Today’s hed gif comes from YouTuber Adriana Hidalgo in Caracas, Venezuela, who posts videos of the wild macaws that visit her apartment balcony. And you can understand why they come—the snacks are amazing!
No video embed today (I dunno, weirdness with my interface), but a direct link to this short is at here, squawk!. Hidalgo also has an Instagram channel with more pictures and videos of these handsome birds.
Caracas is home to hundreds of wild macaws, making the birds a sort of mascot of the city. There are 17 species of Psittacide (birds of the parrot family) that make the city home: parrots, parakeets and four species of macaw. The yellow and blue Ara ararauna are the most populous. They visit rooftops and balconies daily for the food that residents supply. Although wildlife experts advise against feeding wild animals, enthusiasts rarely heed the advice in the case of the Caracas macaws who exist a niche between feral and tame. The daily feeding ritual, started in earnest during COVID lock-downs, brings joy to locals, many of whom create little stories about their favorites and post pictures of their avian visitors. The birds are not native to the capital and although it’s not clear how many have migrated from other parts of the region, it’s probable that many are likely released pets and their descendants. And because the birds are relatively concentrated within a small area and limited genetic pool, new coloration mutations are forming within the population: white birds and those with uncommon coloration—like an abundance of orange, for example—are now found amongst the Caracas macaws.
The National Geographic article linked below has some pretty pictures and more info on these colorful city high-fliers, including a story on Vittorio Poggi, the Italian immigrant caretaker of macaws that cared for and released many of these birds into the city.
National Geographic: "Meet the beloved macaws of Venezuela’s capital" by Paula Ramón, 9/13/22
What lots of folks don't realiza is that parrots like Macaws or African Grays have human-like lifespans, 60+ years in captivity, meaning getting one is a lifetime committment,plus they are also very gregarious, social animals in the wild and probably should have more of their kind living with them.
Very handsome birds, and so well-behaved!