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Cuban macaw
The Cuban macaw or Cuban red macaw (Ara tricolor) is an extinct species of macaw native to the main island of Cuba and the nearby Isla de la Juventud. It became extinct in the late 19th century. Its relationship with other macaws in its genus was long uncertain, but it was thought to have been closely related to the scarlet macaw, which has some similarities in appearance. It may also have been closely related, or identical, to the hypothetical Gosse's macaw (A. gossei). A 2018 DNA study found the Cuban macaw to be the sister species of two red and two green species of extant macaws.
At about 45–50 cm (18–20 in) long, the Cuban macaw was one of the smallest macaws. It had a red, orange, yellow, and white head, and a red, orange, green, brown, and blue body. Little is known of its behavior, but it is reported to have nested in hollow trees, lived in pairs or families, and fed on seeds and fruits. The species' original distribution on Cuba is unknown, but it may have been restricted to the central and western parts of the island. It was mainly reported from the vast Zapata Swamp, where it inhabited open terrain with scattered trees.
The Cuban macaw was traded and hunted by Native Americans, and by Europeans after their arrival in the 15th century. Many individuals were brought to Europe as cagebirds, and 19 museum skins exist today. A few subfossil and archeological remains have been found on Cuba. It had become rare by the mid-19th century due to pressure from hunting, trade, and habitat destruction. Hurricanes may also have contributed to its demise. The last reliable accounts of the species are from the 1850s on Cuba and 1864 on Isla de la Juventud, but it may have persisted until 1885.
Early explorers of Cuba, such as Christopher Columbus and Diego Álvarez Chanca, mentioned macaws there in 15th- and 16th-century writings. Cuban macaws were described and illustrated in several early accounts about the island. In 1811, the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein scientifically named the species Psittacus tricolor. Bechstein's description was based on the bird's entry in the French naturalist François Le Vaillant's 1801 book Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets, wherein it was referred to as l'Ara Tricolor. Le Vaillant's account was itself partially based on the late 18th century work Planches Enuminées by the French naturalists Comte de Buffon and Edme-Louis Daubenton, as well as a specimen in Paris; as it is unknown which specimen this was, the species has no holotype. The French illustrator Jacques Barraband's original watercolor painting, which was the basis of the plate in Le Vaillant's book, differs from the final illustration in showing bright red lesser wing covert feathers ("shoulder" area), but the significance of this is unclear.
Today, 19 skins of the Cuban macaw exist in 15 collections worldwide (two each in Natural History Museum at Tring, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian Museum), but many are of unclear provenance. Several were provided by the Cuban naturalist Juan Gundlach, who collected some of the last individuals that regularly fed near the Zapata Swamp in 1849–50. Some of the preserved specimens are known to have lived in captivity in zoos (such as Jardin des Plantes de Paris, Berlin Zoo, and Amsterdam Zoo) or as cagebirds. The single specimen at World Museum, National Museums Liverpool died in Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby's aviaries at Knowsley Hall in 1846. Several more skins are known to have existed, but have been lost. There are no records of its eggs.
The following subfossil specimens have been discovered: half a carpometacarpus (a hand bone) from a possibly Pleistocene spring deposit in Ciego Montero, Cienfuegos province, identified by extrapolating from the size of Cuban macaw skins and bones of extant macaws (reported in 1928), a rostrum from a Quaternary cave deposit in Caimito (reported in 1984), a worn skull from Sagua La Grande, Villa Clara province, which was deposited in a waterfilled sinkhole possibly during the Quaternary and associated with various extinct birds and ground sloths (reported in 2008), and a fragmentary carpometacarpus from Upper Pleistocene layers of the El Abrón Cave in Pinar del Río, the first physical evidence from the western part of Cuba (reported in 2024). In 2021, the first archeological remains were reported, a tarsometatarsus (a lower leg bone) and upper beak from two sites in Old Havana dated to the 17th and 18th centuries.
As many as 13 now-extinct species of macaw have variously been suggested to have lived on the Caribbean islands, but many of these were based on old descriptions or drawings and only represent hypothetical species. Only three endemic Caribbean macaw species are known from physical remains: the Cuban macaw, the Saint Croix macaw (A. autochthones), which is known only from subfossils, and the Lesser Antillean macaw (A. guadeloupensis), which is known from subfossils and reports. Macaws are known to have been transported between the Caribbean islands and from mainland South America to the Caribbean both in historic times by Europeans and natives, and in prehistoric times by Paleoamericans. Historical records of macaws on these islands, therefore, may not have represented distinct, endemic species; it is also possible that they were escaped or feral foreign macaws that had been transported to the islands. All the endemic Caribbean macaws were likely driven to extinction by humans in historic and prehistoric times. The identity of these macaws is likely to be further resolved only through fossil finds and examination of contemporary reports and artwork.
A macaw shot on Jamaica around 1765 was seen stuffed by a Dr. Robertson, but was since lost. He stated it was different from any macaw he had seen before, and sent a description of it to the British naturalist Philip Henry Gosse, who published his own description in 1847, calling it yellow-headed macaw. It was described as being similar to the Cuban macaw, mainly differing in having a yellow forehead. On this basis, the British zoologist Walter Rothschild named it Ara gossei in 1905, and it was subsequently referred to by common names such as Gosse's macaw, the Jamaican yellow-headed macaw, and the Jamaican red macaw. Some researchers believe the specimen described may have been a feral Cuban macaw. A stylized 1765 painting of a macaw by the British Lieutenant L. J. Robins, published in a volume called The Natural History of Jamaica, matches the Cuban macaw, and may show a specimen that had been imported there; however, it has also been claimed that the painting shows Gosse's macaw. In 2017, the Australian ornithologist Joseph M. Forshaw found the Cuban, the Lesser Antillean, and the supposed Gosse's macaw so similar that they could have been the same species transported between islands, or, with macaws that possibly occurred on other islands, been closely related and possibly derived from the scarlet macaw (A. macao).
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Cuban macaw
The Cuban macaw or Cuban red macaw (Ara tricolor) is an extinct species of macaw native to the main island of Cuba and the nearby Isla de la Juventud. It became extinct in the late 19th century. Its relationship with other macaws in its genus was long uncertain, but it was thought to have been closely related to the scarlet macaw, which has some similarities in appearance. It may also have been closely related, or identical, to the hypothetical Gosse's macaw (A. gossei). A 2018 DNA study found the Cuban macaw to be the sister species of two red and two green species of extant macaws.
At about 45–50 cm (18–20 in) long, the Cuban macaw was one of the smallest macaws. It had a red, orange, yellow, and white head, and a red, orange, green, brown, and blue body. Little is known of its behavior, but it is reported to have nested in hollow trees, lived in pairs or families, and fed on seeds and fruits. The species' original distribution on Cuba is unknown, but it may have been restricted to the central and western parts of the island. It was mainly reported from the vast Zapata Swamp, where it inhabited open terrain with scattered trees.
The Cuban macaw was traded and hunted by Native Americans, and by Europeans after their arrival in the 15th century. Many individuals were brought to Europe as cagebirds, and 19 museum skins exist today. A few subfossil and archeological remains have been found on Cuba. It had become rare by the mid-19th century due to pressure from hunting, trade, and habitat destruction. Hurricanes may also have contributed to its demise. The last reliable accounts of the species are from the 1850s on Cuba and 1864 on Isla de la Juventud, but it may have persisted until 1885.
Early explorers of Cuba, such as Christopher Columbus and Diego Álvarez Chanca, mentioned macaws there in 15th- and 16th-century writings. Cuban macaws were described and illustrated in several early accounts about the island. In 1811, the German naturalist Johann Matthäus Bechstein scientifically named the species Psittacus tricolor. Bechstein's description was based on the bird's entry in the French naturalist François Le Vaillant's 1801 book Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets, wherein it was referred to as l'Ara Tricolor. Le Vaillant's account was itself partially based on the late 18th century work Planches Enuminées by the French naturalists Comte de Buffon and Edme-Louis Daubenton, as well as a specimen in Paris; as it is unknown which specimen this was, the species has no holotype. The French illustrator Jacques Barraband's original watercolor painting, which was the basis of the plate in Le Vaillant's book, differs from the final illustration in showing bright red lesser wing covert feathers ("shoulder" area), but the significance of this is unclear.
Today, 19 skins of the Cuban macaw exist in 15 collections worldwide (two each in Natural History Museum at Tring, Muséum national d'histoire naturelle in Paris, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian Museum), but many are of unclear provenance. Several were provided by the Cuban naturalist Juan Gundlach, who collected some of the last individuals that regularly fed near the Zapata Swamp in 1849–50. Some of the preserved specimens are known to have lived in captivity in zoos (such as Jardin des Plantes de Paris, Berlin Zoo, and Amsterdam Zoo) or as cagebirds. The single specimen at World Museum, National Museums Liverpool died in Edward Smith-Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby's aviaries at Knowsley Hall in 1846. Several more skins are known to have existed, but have been lost. There are no records of its eggs.
The following subfossil specimens have been discovered: half a carpometacarpus (a hand bone) from a possibly Pleistocene spring deposit in Ciego Montero, Cienfuegos province, identified by extrapolating from the size of Cuban macaw skins and bones of extant macaws (reported in 1928), a rostrum from a Quaternary cave deposit in Caimito (reported in 1984), a worn skull from Sagua La Grande, Villa Clara province, which was deposited in a waterfilled sinkhole possibly during the Quaternary and associated with various extinct birds and ground sloths (reported in 2008), and a fragmentary carpometacarpus from Upper Pleistocene layers of the El Abrón Cave in Pinar del Río, the first physical evidence from the western part of Cuba (reported in 2024). In 2021, the first archeological remains were reported, a tarsometatarsus (a lower leg bone) and upper beak from two sites in Old Havana dated to the 17th and 18th centuries.
As many as 13 now-extinct species of macaw have variously been suggested to have lived on the Caribbean islands, but many of these were based on old descriptions or drawings and only represent hypothetical species. Only three endemic Caribbean macaw species are known from physical remains: the Cuban macaw, the Saint Croix macaw (A. autochthones), which is known only from subfossils, and the Lesser Antillean macaw (A. guadeloupensis), which is known from subfossils and reports. Macaws are known to have been transported between the Caribbean islands and from mainland South America to the Caribbean both in historic times by Europeans and natives, and in prehistoric times by Paleoamericans. Historical records of macaws on these islands, therefore, may not have represented distinct, endemic species; it is also possible that they were escaped or feral foreign macaws that had been transported to the islands. All the endemic Caribbean macaws were likely driven to extinction by humans in historic and prehistoric times. The identity of these macaws is likely to be further resolved only through fossil finds and examination of contemporary reports and artwork.
A macaw shot on Jamaica around 1765 was seen stuffed by a Dr. Robertson, but was since lost. He stated it was different from any macaw he had seen before, and sent a description of it to the British naturalist Philip Henry Gosse, who published his own description in 1847, calling it yellow-headed macaw. It was described as being similar to the Cuban macaw, mainly differing in having a yellow forehead. On this basis, the British zoologist Walter Rothschild named it Ara gossei in 1905, and it was subsequently referred to by common names such as Gosse's macaw, the Jamaican yellow-headed macaw, and the Jamaican red macaw. Some researchers believe the specimen described may have been a feral Cuban macaw. A stylized 1765 painting of a macaw by the British Lieutenant L. J. Robins, published in a volume called The Natural History of Jamaica, matches the Cuban macaw, and may show a specimen that had been imported there; however, it has also been claimed that the painting shows Gosse's macaw. In 2017, the Australian ornithologist Joseph M. Forshaw found the Cuban, the Lesser Antillean, and the supposed Gosse's macaw so similar that they could have been the same species transported between islands, or, with macaws that possibly occurred on other islands, been closely related and possibly derived from the scarlet macaw (A. macao).
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