Military Macaw

Military Macaws are found in mountainous forested areas where roosting flights can number 150 birds, but usually seen in small family groups of 10-20 birds.
For years many of the parrot species were hard to sex and often being chosen by habits or size resulting in many supposed pairs being the same sex so the breeding rate was very low.
Firstly surgical sexing was undertaken, but this was time consuming and invasive for the bird. Now we have DNA sexing where we just have to pluck a few feathers from a chick or adult, send them to a laboratory and have confirmed sex in three days. Now breeding success with parrots and many other bird species has greatly improved.
Distribution: Mexico, west colombia, NW Venezuela, Ecuador, northern Peru and Bolivia to NW Argentina.
Diet: Seeds and fruit.