| Ara
erythrocephala
|
HOME |
| |
| Kingdom |
Animalia |
Created by Peter Maas
for The Extinction Website. This
image has been released under
the Creative
Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 3.0 Licence.
|
| Phylum |
Chordata |
| Class |
Aves
(birds) |
| Order |
Psittaciformes
(parrots)
|
| Family |
Psittacidae
(true parrots)
|
| Subfamily |
Psittacinae |
| Tribe |
Arini
(neotropical parrots) |
| Genus |
Ara
(true macaws) |
| Species |
Ara
erythrocephala |
| Authority |
Gosse,
1847 |
| |
| English
Name |
Red-headed
Green Macaw,
Jamaican
Green-and-yellow Macaw
|
| Dutch
Name |
Groengele
Ara |
| German
Name |
Jamaika-Ara
|
| Spanish Name |
Guacamayo
Verde y Amarillo Jamaiquino |
| |
| Comments |
This
parrot is usually considered a hypothetical extinct parrot species. It is
only known from old reports. No skins, bones or any archaeological remains
are known. Greenway (1958)
called this an “almost mythical bird” given the circumstances
surrounding its description. |
| |
| Taxonomy |
Snyder
et al. (1987) suggested that A. erythrocephala may represent A.
militaris or A. ambigua, both Central American species. Williams and Steadman
(2001) see no reason why multiple species of Ara could also have
inhabited this large island of diverse habitats, especially given that two
endemic species of Amazona occur in Jamaica. It is possible that this
species was that apparently named as Anadorhynchus (sic.) caerulens by
Gmelin (in which case this name would have priority). The original
descriptions require re-evaluation (BirdLife International 2004). |
| |
| Characteristics |
The
head was red, the body bright green, and the wings and greater coverts
blue. The tail was scarlet and blue on top, whereas the tail and wings
were intense orange-yellow underneath (Rothschild, 1905; Salvadori, 1906a;
Greenway, 1958). |
| |
| Range
& Habitat |
 Ara
erythrocephala was said to have been found in the mountains of
Trelawney and St. Anne’s parishes, Jamaica (Rothschild, 1905).
Image: map with the previous
range of the Red-headed Green Macaw (in red). Created by Peter Maas for The Extinction Website. The
copyright holder of this work has released it into the public domain.
This applies worldwide.
|
| |
| History
& Population |
Ara erythrocephala was described by
Gosse in 1847. It was presumably hunted to extinction in the early 19th
century. (BirdLife International 2004)
|
| |
| Extinction
Causes |
It was presumably hunted to extinction
(BirdLife International 2004).
|
| |
| Museum
Specimens |
There
are no specimens in any known collection. |
| |
| Relatives |
The
relatives of this species are all other macaw species, including the other
extinct West Indian macaw species, like the Cuban
Red Macaw (Ara tricolor),
Dominica
Macaw (Ara atwoodi), Red-tailed
Blue-and-Yellow Macaw (Ara erythrura), Jamaican
Red Macaw (Ara gossei),
Guadeloupe
Macaw (Ara guadeloupensis), and the
Martinique
Macaw (Ara martinica).
|
| |
| Links |
IUCN
Red List of Threatened Species: Ara erythrocephala
Ausgerottete
Arten - Grüner Jamaika-Ara
|
| |
|
References
(Complete
website)
|
BirdLife International 2004. Ara
erythrocephala. In: IUCN 2006. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
<www.iucnredlist.org>.
Downloaded on 02 February 2007.
Browne, Patrick (1756). The civil
and natural history of Jamaica, etc., London.
Greenway, J. C. 1958. Extinct and
vanishing birds of the world. American Committee for
International Wild Life Protection 13, New York.
Rothschild, W. 1905. Untitled. (Notes on
extinct parrots from the West Indies). Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 16: 13-15.
Salvadori, T. 1906. Notes on the
parrots (Part V). Ibis, Series 8, 6:451-456.
Snyder, F. R. et al. 1987. The
Parrots of Luquillo: Natural History and Conservation of the Puerto Rican
Parrot. The Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology. Allen Press Inc.
Williams, M. I.
& D. V. Steadman (2001): The historic and prehistoric distribution of
parrots (Psittacidae) in the West Indies. Pp 175-489 in Biogeography of
the West Indies: patterns and perspectives. 2nd ed. (Woods, C. A. & F.
E. Sergile, eds.) Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press.
|
|
Last
updated: 27th September 2008.
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page is a part of The
Extinction Website.
© 2000-2009. |