Probably it was Christopher Columbus who was the first man from Europe to see parrots when he landed in the Caribbean. He even took back a pair to Queen Isabella of Spain.
The macaw is found in South America. Their feathers were highly prized. The Aztecs even bred them for decorating the clothing of the elite. The word macaw originates from the Portuguese. When the Portuguese first arrived in Brazil, they saw so many birds that they even named the country Land of the Parrots. Fittingly the word macaw first appeared in English in the fourth part of the Samuel Purchas’s travelogue Pilgrims which describes parrots known as macaws. A little later there was some more detail on the subject, when in Onomasticon zoicon, a zoological document written originally in Latin in 1688 by Walter Charleton and translated into English the macaw is described as a “great blue and yellow parrot”. This masterwork of zoology aksi was the first time the birds hoopoe, bee eater, song thrush and word pigeon were mentioned in English.
There are many different varieties of the macaw which lives for up to 60 years and currently there are some 1 million macaws in the wild and in zoos. Even though they are now currently prized by pet lovers, it was a long time before they actually appeared in zoos. In the United States, it was Cincinnati Zoo which bought 16 birds in 1886 and achieved the first breeding in the USA.
Did you like the article? Then please like and share it on Facebook, tweet it on Twitter or add it in Google+.
