Living with a red fronted macaw

The Red-Fronted Macaw

The Red-Fronted Macaw is the smallest of the large macaws. They typically range between 20-24 inches in length. They are mostly green with a red forehead and a red patch over their ears. They have red at the bend of the wings and the primary wing feathers are blue.

TheRed-Fronted Macaw is originally from a small mountainous area of south-central Bolivia. They were not common in aviculture until recent years. During the days of illegal import and trade, the red-front macaws were overlooked and not snatched as often as the more colorful macaws.

The Red -Fronted Macaw is the third rarest macaw in the wild. Approximately 500 remain in three narrow green river valley bottoms of the dry, parched Andean foothills of central Bolivia. Habitat loss due to agriculture is a major problem.

Pet Quality

The Red-Fronted Macaw is a very loyal and endearing companion. This bird’s distinctive beauty, manageable size, fun character and loving disposition make it an ideal pet macaw.

The size of this macaw is a bonus. The Red-Front Macaw has all of the great attributes of the larger macaws in a smaller package. The size of this macaw affords the owner the opportunity to experience sharing their life with a macaw with fewer expenses incurred to maintain. While the red-front macaw does require and enjoy his/her share of toys, the size and cost of toys required to entertain this species are far less than that of the larger Macaws.

The Red-Front loves to “rough house” with their human companion. They also love to be in the center of everything. And if they meet someone they like, they will show off all of their endearing antics.

First Hand Experience with a Red-Front Macaw

Meet Monty

Monty is a Red-Front Macaw that has lived with his owner since he was freshly weaned. Monty is now 15 years old. Monty shares his life with his companion – Derron. When Derron brought Monty home Monty was about 14-16 weeks old. Derron recalls that Monty still needed to be spoon fed for the first few weeks home.

Derron was helping a friend at his friend’s house. This friend, Dave, was a breeder of many different species of parrots. Derron questioned Dave as to what babies he had in his facility at that time. Dave told me of the red-fronted macaws he was feeding and Derron’s interest was piqued as he had not heard of this species.

Derron questioned Dave as to what the Red-Fronts were “like”. Little was known about them at that time and Dave informed him of that. Dave was one of the first to successfully breed the red fronts and this was his first clutch of babies. At that point Dave asked Derron if he wanted one of the babies. Derron’s initial response was, “No Way! I already have an amazon”.

They continued working on their project and soon it was time to go feed the babies so they cleaned up and headed into the house. They entered the “baby room” and Dave headed to the red-front’s area and opened their door. The next thing Derron recalls is one particular Red-Front baby flew out of his cage and landed on him and could not be pried off of him. Derron stated, “that bird was really sucking up”.

Derron left that night not thinking too much about adding this Red-Fronted Macaw to his family. He did return a few days later to finish up that project they had been working on. To Derron’s amazement, that same red-front baby made sure that he noticed him again. He approached the cage and took the baby out and sure enough that baby once again was “hanging on for dear life” to Derron and would not leave his side.

A few days later Dave had a speaking engagement in the Minneapolis area and needed some help getting things set up for the event. Dave brought all three of the red front babies he had with him for this event. Sure enough, the same red front baby saw me again and would not let go. Needless to say, Derron took “Monty” home with him that evening.

Life with a Red Front Macaw

Life with Monty has been very rewarding. They have had their share of “trying moments” but all in all Derron has never regretted his decision to take Monty home.

In the early days of their relationship, Monty’s shrill scream proved to be challenging. The screaming would start every morning as soon as the sun came up. Derron would simply wake up long enough to cover Monty and then the screaming would subside. Derron always attributed this trait to the fact that Monty is the “first generation” out of the wild, but has since learned that this trait is one that is quite common of this species and has been proven to subside as the bird matures.

Derron also found that whenever he would show attention to his Yellow Crowned Amazon he would need to first take a moment and “praise” Monty or Monty would show his dislike to the events happening by letting out with a shrill scream. The shrill screams of the red-front would certainly give reason for some people to give up on this species and to stereo- type them as an unsuitable companion to reside in their home. Had Derron given up on him at that point, he would have missed out on the best parts of sharing his life with Monty.

Monty has proven to be a very loyal companion. Due to the fact that Monty’s home environment primarily consisted of Derron as the care giver, the two of them are very bonded and dependent on one another. Monty loves to be with Derron and on occasion simply demands it be “calling” out to him.

Personality Traits

The Red-Front Macaw is up for “non-stop” action according to Derron. He also stated that the Red-Front Macaw is a great candidate for doing “stand-up comedy”. In his opinion, out of all the birds he has been around the red-front has the ability to keep you laughing even when they are being “naughty”.

Derron keeps Monty full-flighted and does not recommend clipping the wings of this species. The red-front has a very large wing span in perspective of the light body. Clipping a red-front enough so they could not fly would require clipping MANY feathers. The red-front macaw’s flying ability is quite amazing. They have the ability to “turn on a dime” and also the amazing ability to hover.

The only personality trait that Derron struggles with is the fact that Monty will do whatever he can to outsmart him. Derron stated that he used to keep a bowl full of walnuts, almonds and pecans on the dining room table. It did not take Monty long to discover this smorgasbord put out, in Monty’s opinion, just for him. Monty was discouraged from frequent visits to the nut bowl, but every time Derron would leave the room, if only for a second, he would return to find Monty enjoying a feast. After enough times of being “chased” away from the nut bowl, Monty got wise and would fly over just long enough to choose the nut of his choice and then proceed to fly back to his play stand to savor the nut uninterrupted.

Other than Monty’s feast of nuts in the shell, he is on a pelleted diet and a seed mix that has dried fruits and vegetables in it and NO sunflower seeds. Monty also enjoys cooked sweet potatoes and various fresh fruits and veggies.

One of Monty’s “must haves” in his cage is his green “birdie buddy”. The birdie buddy is a piece of green fleece material that hangs next to his perch. He has consistently had one in his cage since the day he came to live with Derron. Monty will grab hold of his “birdie buddy” and cover his head to sleep. Derron believes he would be lost without it!

Recommending the Red-Front

Derron highly recommends the red-front macaw as a companion parrot. As he stated earlier, one just needs to ride out the storm of the early vocalizations in order to fully enjoy the rewards of sharing your life with a red-front.

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