Lesser Antillean Macaw - Behaviour

Behaviour

Du Tetre gave a detailed account of the behaviour of the Lesser Antillean Macaw in 1654:

This bird lives on berries, and on the fruit of certain trees, but principally on the apples of the manchioneel (!), which is a powerful and caustic poison to other animals. It is the prettiest sight in the world to see ten or a dozen Macaws in a green tree. Their voice is loud and piercing, and they always cry when flying. If one imitates their cry, they stop short. They have a grave and dignified demeanor, and so far from being alarmed by many shots fired under a tree where they are perched, they gaze at their companions who fall dead to the ground without being disturbed at all, so that one may fire five or six times into the same tree without their appearing to be frightened.

In a 1667 work, Du Tetre gave a similar account, but also mentioned that the macaw only ate the poisonous Manchineel fruits in times of necessary, and went on to describe its reproductive behaviour:

The male and the female are inseparable companions and it is rare that one is seen singly. When they wish to breed (which they do once or twice a year) they make a hole with their beaks in the stump of a large tree, and construct a nest with feathers from their own bodies. They lay two eggs, the size of those of a partridge (Perdix cinerea). The others of the parrot kind make their nests in the same way, but lay green eggs... The Macaws are much larger than the large parrots of Guadeloupe or Grenada, and live longer than a man; but they are almost all subject to a falling sickness.

The twice yearly breeding may actually have been staggered breeding, which is practised by some tropical birds.

Clark suggested that the Lesser Antillean Macaw also occurred on Dominica and Martinique, but there is no evidence for this. It may instead have existed on other islands that were closer to Guadeloupe.