Sulphur Crested Cockatoo

The Sulphur Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita) is a relatively large white Cockatoo found in wooded habitats in Australia and New Guinea and some of the islands of Indonesia. They can be locally very numerous, leading to them sometimes being considered pests. A highly intelligent bird, they are well known in aviculture, although they can be demanding pets.

Within Australia, Sulphur Crested Cockatoo of the nominate race have also been introduced to Perth, which is far outside the natural range. Outside Australia, they have been introduced to Singapore, where their numbers have been estimated to be between 500 and 2000. They have also been introduced to Palau and New Zealand. In New Zealand, the introduced populations may number less than 1000. This species has also been recorded as established in Hawaii and from various islands in Wallacea (e.g. Kai Islands and Ambon), but it is unclear if it has managed to become established there they are also native to Australia.

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Blue and Gold Macaw

The Blue and Yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna), also known as the Blue and Gold Macaw, is a large South American parrot with blue top parts and yellow under parts. It is a member of the large group of neotropical parrots known as Macaws. It inhabits forest (especially varzea, but also in open sections of terra firme or unflooded forest), woodland and savannah of tropical South America. They are popular in aviculture because of their striking color, ability to talk, ready availability in the marketplace, and close bonding to humans.

This species occurs in Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay. The range extends slightly into Central America, where it is restricted to Panama. The species’ range formerly included Trinidad, but it became extinct there by 1970 as a result of human activities. Between 1999 and 2003, wild-caught blue-and-gold macaws were translocated from Guyana to Trinidad, in an attempt to re-establish the species in a protected area around Nariva swamp. A small breeding population descended from introduced birds is found in Puerto Rico, and another has inhabited Miami-Dade County, Florida, since the mid-1980s.

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Green Winged Macaw

The Red and Green Macaw (Ara chloropterus), also known as the Green Winged Macaw, is a large, mostly-red macaw of the Ara genus. This is the largest of the Ara genus, widespread in the forests and woodlands of northern and central South America. However, in common with other macaws, in recent years there has been a marked decline in its numbers due to habitat loss and illegal capture for the parrot trade.

The Green Winged Macaw can be readily distinguished from the Scarlet Macaw. While the breast of both birds are bright red, the upper-wing covert feathers of the Green Winged Macaw is mostly green but can occasionally sport a few yellow feathers above the band of green (as opposed to mostly yellow, or a strong mix of yellow and green in the Scarlet Macaw). In addition, the Green Winged Macaw has characteristic red lines around the eyes formed by rows of tiny feathers on the otherwise bare white skin patch; this is one of the biggest differences from a Scarlet Macaw to the casual viewer. Iridescent teal feathers are surrounded by red on the tail. If seen together, the Green Winged Macaw is clearly larger than the Scarlet Macaw as well.

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African Grey Parrot

The Grey Parrot (Psittacus erithacus), also known as the Congo Grey Parrot or African Grey Parrot, is an Old World Parrot in the family Psittacidae. The Timneh parrot (Psittacus timneh) was earlier treated as conspecific but has since been split as a full species.

The grey parrot is native to equatorial Africa, including Angola, Cameroon, Congo, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, and Uganda. The species is found inside a range from Kenya to the eastern part of the Ivory Coast. Current estimates for the global population are uncertain and range from 0.63 to 13 million birds. Populations are decreasing worldwide. The species seems to favor dense forests, but can also be found at forest edges and in more open vegetation types (gallery and savanna forests).

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Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo

The Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo (Lophochroa leadbeateri) also known as Leadbeater’s Cockatoo or Pink Cockatoo, is a medium-sized Cockatoo restricted to arid and semi-arid inland areas of Australia. It is here placed in its own monotypic genus Lophochroa, though to include it in Cacatua as others do is not wrong as long as the Corellas are also included there. They are also a type of Cockatoo.

With its soft-textured white and salmon-pink plumage and large, bright red and yellow crest, it is often described as the most beautiful of all Cockatoos. It is named in honour of Major Sir Thomas Mitchell, who wrote, “Few birds more enliven the monotonous hues of the Australian forest than this beautiful species whose pink-coloured wings and flowing crest might have embellished the air of a more voluptuous region.”

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Grey Crowned Crane

The Grey Crowned Crane (Balearica regulorum) is a bird in the crane family Gruidae. It is found in eastern and southern Africa, and is the national bird of Uganda. This species and the black-crowned crane are the only cranes that can roost in trees, because of a long hind toe that can grasp branches. This trait is assumed to be an ancestral trait among the cranes, which has been lost in the other subfamily. Crowned cranes also lack a coiled trachea and have loose plumage compared to the other cranes.

It occurs in dry savannah in Africa south of the Sahara, although it nests in somewhat wetter habitats. They can also be found in marshes, cultivated lands and grassy flatlands near rivers and lakes in Uganda and Kenya and as far south as South Africa. This animal does not have set migration patterns, and birds nearer the tropics are typically sedentary. Birds in more arid areas, particularly Namibia, make localised seasonal movements during drier periods.

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Scarlet Macaw

The Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao) is a large red, yellow, and blue South American parrot, a member of a large group of Neotropical parrots called macaws. It is native to humid evergreen forests of tropical South America. Range extends from south-eastern Mexico to the Peruvian Amazon, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela and Brazil in lowlands up to 500 m (1,640 ft) (at least formerly) up to 1,000 m (3,281 ft).

It has suffered from local extinction through habitat destruction and capture for the parrot trade, but locally it remains fairly common. Formerly it ranged north to southern Tamaulipas. It can still be found on the island of Coiba. It is the national bird of Honduras.

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Hyacinth Macaw

The Hyacinth Macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus), or Hyacinthine Macaw, is a parrot native to central and eastern South America. With a length (from the top of its head to the tip of its long pointed tail) of about 100 cm (3.3 ft) it is longer than any other species of parrot. It is the largest macaw and the largest flying parrot species, though the flightless kakapo of New Zealand can outweigh it at up to 3.5 kg. While generally easily recognized, it can be confused with the far rarer and smaller Lear’s macaw.

Habitat loss and the trapping of wild birds for the pet trade have taken a heavy toll on their population in the wild, so the species is classified as Vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, and it is protected by its listing on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

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Blue Fronted Amazon

Blue Fronted AmazonBlue Fronted Amazon parrots are among the most common birds kept as pets, and despite the name are a bright lime green. Also known as the Turquoise Fronted Amazon or simply the Blue Fronted Parrot, these birds are normally between 15 and 17 inches long from the beak to the tip of the tail feathers.

The bird, whose scientific name is Amazona aestiva, gets its common name from the blotch of blue found just above its beak on the front of its head. They have touches of bright red on their shoulders and flight feathers and have black beaks and gray feet.

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