Red-headed macaw

The red-headed macaw or Jamaican green-and-yellow macaw (Ara erythrocephala) may have been a species of parrot in the family Psittacidae that lived in Jamaica, but its existence is hypothetical.

Red-headed macaw
Hypothetical illustration, John Gerrard Keulemans, 1907
Conservation status
Not evaluated (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification (disputed)
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Psittaciformes
Family:	Psittacidae
Genus:	Ara
Species:	A. erythrocephala
Binomial name
Ara erythrocephala Gosse, 1847
Location of Jamaica

Description

Rothschild based it on a description which a Mr. Hill had sent to Philip Henry Gosse:

Head red; neck, shoulders, and underparts of a light and lively green; the greater wing coverts and quills, blue; and the tail scarlet and blue on the upper surface, with the under plumage, both of wings and tail, a mass of intense orange yellow. The specimen here described was procured in the mountains of Trelawny and St. Anne's by Mr. White, proprietor of the Oxford estate.^[2]

Ara erythrocephala could have been found in the mountains of Trelawney and St. Anne's Parishes, Jamaica.^[3] It was described to have been found in the mountains, and presumably in forest as well.^[4]

Extinction

It is believed that the main reason for the macaw's extinction was overhunting.^[5]

The macaw is extinct,^[4] and it is conjectured to have been hunted to extinction in the early 19th century.^[6] It was a close relative of the Cuban and Dominican macaws.^[6] Its existence is considered dubious today.^[7]