Red-and-Green Macaws Return to Brazil’s Atlantic Forest After 200 Year Absence

With a flash of crimson and a splash of emerald, red-and-green macaws are breeding in the Atlantic Forest for the first time in two centuries.

Pair of red-and-green macaws in flight

Now, the arrival of a pair of freshly fledged red-and-green macaw chicks marks a major milestone in the recovery of the gorgeously colourful birds along the Brazilian coast. These macaws were once widely distributed in Brazil, but the combination of deforestation and illegal capture for the pet trade led to its extinction along the entire Brazilian coast.

However, the good news is that in 2022, the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources established a reintroduction programme which has proved to be successful.

In 2024, three dozen captive birds were chipped, quarantined and rehabilitated in specialist nurseries, where they learned how to socialise with other macaws and adapt to life in the wild. Then they were released into a large area of regenerated forest in southern Bahia on the Atlantic coast, containing artificial feeders and nest boxes.

To avoid stressing the birds, the nest sites were monitored remotely. Then in April, two chicks poked their heads out of one of the boxes. “It was a very special moment,” says project coordinator Ligia Ilg. “Seeing the chicks flying well, being fed by their parents and beginning to forage independently was incredibly emotional.”

"The idea that wild macaws kept in captivity prefer human company is a myth,” says Ilg. Given the chance and the freedom, they can still play a successful role in the conservation of their natural ecosystems.

These macaws generally mate for life and the female typically lays two or three eggs in a nest made in a hole in a tree. The female incubates the eggs for about 28 days, and the chicks fledge from the nest about 90 days after hatching.

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