In 2011, after decades of absence from its ecosystem, Blue would soar freely in its habitat again, but the joy didn’t last long, as in 2024 the news changed: the Spix’s macaw has become extinct. The Spix’s macaw tops the list of the first confirmed extinct birds in the past decade.
Concerns about the conservation of these birds began 20 years ago when the last sighting in the wild was documented. First identified in the mid-19th century, the species had suffered from habitat reduction, especially with the deforestation of Brazil. Blu, the Spix’s macaw, becomes extinct in its natural habitat.
Blu, the Spix’s Macaw, Becomes Extinct in Its Natural Habitat
In 2011, the movie Rio was released, depicting the life of Blu, a Spix’s macaw raised in captivity in the United States who returns to Brazil to mate with the only remaining female of his species. However, in real life, Blu never got the chance to encounter the Spix’s macaw and repopulate his species. A new study by BirdLife International recounting endangered birds has revealed that the Spix’s macaw became extinct as of 2016, although it is suspected to have been a captive-bred bird that escaped.
After the declaration of extinction in the wild in 2019, efforts were unified to prevent its definitive disappearance. This endeavor has been led by the Association for the Conservation of Threatened Parrots, which managed to gather a group of Spix’s macaws, conduct socialization projects with the communities where these birds were to be released, and now oversees their reintroduction, but the efforts were in vain, leaving their habitat devoid of their color and song.
The causes of the extinction of this bird famous from Rio were due to deforestation, the creation of a dam, and the capture of its specimens for illegal trade. The Spix’s macaw liked to inhabit what is known as gallery forests, which are trees linked to the bank of a river.
The Story of a Valuable Bird: Spix’s Macaw
The Spix’s macaw is a bird belonging to the parrot family and is one of the eight species whose extinction was classified as “confirmed” or “highly probable.” Its origin and discovery from the outset have been a struggle. It was first described by the German naturalist Georg Marcgraf while working in the state of Pernambuco, Brazil, in 1638, and its name is a tribute to the also German Johann Baptist von Spix, who obtained a specimen in 1819 on the bank of the São Francisco River in Bahia.
Its plumage includes various shades of blue, with the head, wings, and tail being paler than the rest of the body. The underside of the wings and tail is black. It has a “mask” of bare gray facial skin, sometimes white. The beak is entirely black, except in juveniles, who have a white stripe in the center. The Spix’s macaw feeds on two species of Euphorbiaceae plants, which are endemic to the region, a region that began to decline due to the deforestation of the area.
This story was written in Spanish by Perla Vallejo in Ecoosfera.
