Anodorhynchus glaucus (Vieillot, 1816)

Rodríguez, Oscar, Castillo, Leandro, Smith, Paul & Castillo, Hugo del, 2019, Status and distribution of Paraguayan macaws (Aves: Psittacidae) with a new country record, Papéis Avulsos de Zoologia 59, pp. 1-10 : 7

Glaucous Macaw Anodorhynchus glaucus

Widely considered to be globally extinct ( Collar et al., 1992), Paraguayan records are all historical in nature and there is little clarity as to its previous distribution.

The species was first reported by Sánchez Labrador ( Castex, 1968) who describes the Guaa obi (Guaa hovy = “blue macaw” in the Guaraní language) as abundant along the Uruguay River, but “rarely seen” along the Paraguay River. He makes specific reference to a captive bird owned by indigenous people at the town of “La Concepción de Nuestra Señora” but this locality was placed in Misiones, Argentina by Teixeira & Papavero (2016). Sánchez Labrador ( Castex, 1968) provides the only known report of the bird along the Paraguay River, but much of the northern course of this river is within the known range of Hyacinth Macaw. The Uruguay River however is within the known range of Glaucous Macaw and as Anodorhynchus macaws are considered to have allopatric distributions ( Juniper & Parr, 1998), it seems possible that the author may not have distinguished between the two species.

Azara (1805) described the species as his No. 273 Guacamayo azul,reporting the species along the Uruguay and Paraná Rivers between 27° and 29°S“but never north of this”. Considering the vagaries of latitude at this time, such a description could potentially be outside of the boundaries of modern day Paraguay. Berlepsch (1887) reflected this doubt, whilst Bertoni (1914, 1939) stated that Azara “hunted the species at the latitude of southern Paraguay, but along the Uruguay River”, though this seems to infer additional information to that provided in Azara’s (1805) text. Podtiaguin (1944) included “Rio Pelotas Kl. 3 (Alto Paraná)” in his distribution for the species, and this was associated with a stream south of Salto del Guairá, Canindeyú department by Collar et al. (1992) based on a 19 th Century map ( Beyer, 1886).We have been unable to trace a copy of this map and can find no other reference to that name for any river in that area, consequently we consider it equally likely that the reference is to the Pelotas River which separates the Brazilian states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, and drains into the Uruguay River, this being more consistent with the documented range of the species.

Orfila (1936) mentions two specimens from “ Paraguay ” in the MACN, but other specimens with similarly vague data (NHM, ANSP, RMNH, MNRdJ) date from a time when the borders of Paraguay extended considerably further south than they do today ( Finsch, 1867; Collar et al., 1992; Hayes, 1995; Teixeira & Papavero, 2016) or are ex-zoo specimens (AMNH 474109, 474110) said to have originated in Paraguay. The species is retained as possible on the Paraguayan list because of the number of specimens purportedly from the country combined with the latitude provided by Azara just incorporating Paraguayan territory, but it is to be noted that concrete reports of the species from Paraguay are lacking.