Macaws

It takes about 24 days for incubation (before baby hatches) it is amazing to see the chick chip away at the shell, until it has gone completely around before pushing it's way out into the world. You can also see the red blood vessels and membrane that once held and nourished the baby while developing in the egg. We placed a walnut shell in one picture to give you a more accurate idea of what a blue and gold macaws size would be upon hatching. In the last picture of this group of 5 pictures the egg tooth is visible (the white tip on the beak), it is very hard. This is what the baby uses to chip away at the egg shell. Soon it will disappear, because the baby will not have need of it.

The eyes are sealed shut and will begin to open in a few weeks to come. They grow at such a rapid rate that the day after the baby macaw has hatched he would not possibly fit back into the egg from which he hatched from.

It is important to know that the macaw uses it's beak not only to eat and pick things up later in life but also as a third foot often when you pick the macaw up. Latching onto your hand or a perch to pull himself up.

In the macaws first year even though he will look to be an adult he is not and must be treated with the kindness you would show an infant. Your macaw at this time will learn and take in much. His talking ability is great and he often will begin to talk and verbalize far before the weaning process. Males of many species are often said to talk better than females, this is not the case in macaws. They both talk equally and exceptionally well and have the extraordinary ability to learn in more than one voice.

They like all birds do see color, one more on the spectrum than we do.

Please be patient our videos take time to load. Note our baby is really not the color he looks (in video), I'm new at taking movies. But thought this was just to neat not to share, after all how often does an opportunity like this present itself? A blue & gold macaw hatching, you will find our hatching macaw videos linked to our still pictures throughout this page. Don't miss out on the sound you will here when the baby blue and gold macaw is hatching.

Below is a preview animation of what you will see, but it doesn't have sound like our videos do, don't miss out.

real videos with sound

Here is a 10 day old blue & gold macaw chick,

shown with an artificial macaw egg (to size).

3 weeks, 5 weeks, and at 12 weeks, baby macaws are amazing to watch as they grow. Some stages of growth are so rapid, one minute they have no feathers and the next you see feathers emerging.

At about 16 weeks they are completely weaned, it's amazing to watch them grow. Surpassed by none, their legendary beauty, magnificent plumage, captivating personality, intelligent inquisitive nature make the blue & gold macaw a favorite in the bird world.

They are truly one of my favorite, and several we own talk better than our congo greys. When raised in a nurturing environment you couldn't ask for more in a companion.

Here are two examples of the eye color in a blue and gold macaw. The adult macaw has yellow white eyes and the baby (under 4months) has dark eyes that will lighten up as he becomes older. Usually the eyes are the color of the adult bird at about a year and a half of age or a little after and I have seen some take up to 2 years old for the total yellow white change of the adult.

In fact I did have a macaw that by age 5 his eye color was a light amber color but this is not the norm and seldom seen, and now over 20 years still has light amber eyes.

Another thing that occurs in the adult is the black bordering the white skin at the neck becomes more pronounced as they grow into adulthood. You can also see that the young macaw shows more wrinkles in the white facial skin than does the adult macaw.