The Story
I photographed this Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) near El Doncello, Caquetá, Colombia, in February 2021. It is the most commonly kept macaw in the world, with about a million living in captivity as of 2025. In the wild it nests almost only in dead palms, mostly Mauritia flexuosa. Adults weigh 1.0 to 1.5 kilograms and measure 81 to 91 centimeters, which makes them some of the larger members of the parrot family. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I made this frame with a Canon R5 and the RF 800mm f/11 plus the RF 1.4x extender, at 1/1000 sec, f/16, ISO 3200, −1 EV. El Doncello is the leading rubber-growing municipality in Colombia, with more than 200 hectares planted around Maguaré and Puerto Manrique.
©2021 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna) belongs to the family Psittacidae (New World and African Parrots) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2018), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List