"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful..."
The macaw is a beautiful creature that is quite well known for its intelligence, bubbly birdsonality and downright eerie ability to mimic human speech. But since it’s International Macaw Day (I just declared it), I thought I would treat you to some trivia on our flashy, florid, feathered friends.
5. They are rowdy party goers. In other words, they love spending time in a big flock of 20-30 individuals. There are 17 different species of macaws and they’re all the life of the party. Just don’t ask them to keep it down, because they just won’t listen.
4. Don’t let the cute face fool you — the hyacinth macaw is the biggest of its kind, with a wingspan of four feet. They also have a tongue that has a bone in it, that helps them easily crack through the tough shells of nuts and seeds. Take that, Tweety.
3. They self-medicate. You know how you run off to the drugstore and grab yourself some of that pink stuff when you have a stomach ache? Animals do that too, they just don’t have ready access to drugstores. Instead, they use what’s around them. Macaws (and a whole truckload of other animals) have been known to eat damp soil, which helps to neutralize their stomach and all of its fruity-diet induced erks and aches.
2. They get married. Ok, so that was wildly anthropomorphic, but macaws really do mate for life. (In fact, I bet their ‘divorce’ rate is much better than ours…) Once a macaw has found its other half, they will breed together, groom each other, share food and quote Tennyson. Bottom line: if your marriage is in trouble, perhaps you should talk to a macaw.
1. Most of them are lefties. Yeah, you heard me. Lefties. Scientists have determined this by carefully filming and documenting dominant hand/claw preference for hours on end. They probably could have saved some time by trying to high-five them.
So there you have it. Up next, International Buy Me A Sandwich Day. Any takers?
