Free Teacher Resources
A green blue-headed macaw with a blue head perched on a branch.
Photo: Robert01 (edited by Snowmanradio), CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons

Blue-Headed Macaw

Primolius couloni

A small "mini-macaw" of the western Amazon with a blue head and green body.

🦜 Parrots
Checking teacher reviews…
Teacher? Sign in to review this page →Report a mistake

About the Blue-Headed Macaw

Blue-headed macaws are about 16 inches long, which makes them "mini-macaws," a name for macaws shorter than 20 inches. They have a blue head, green wings and body, and some maroon on the tail. They live in humid forests along rivers and clearings in the southwestern Amazon and the Andes foothills of Peru, Bolivia and Brazil.[1]

Quick facts

Scientific name
Primolius couloni[1]
Size
About 16 inches long.[1]
Diet
Herbivore. Fruits and seeds; also visits clay licks.[1]
Habitat
Humid evergreen forests along rivers and in clearings, up to about 5,100 feet.[1]
Where it lives
Southwestern Amazon and eastern Andes foothills of Peru, Bolivia and Brazil.[1]
Group life
Groups of 2 to 4. Active during the day.[1]
Conservation status
Vulnerable (IUCN Red List, assessed 2018).[2]

Fun facts

  • Any macaw shorter than 20 inches is called a "mini-macaw."[1]
  • Blue-headed macaws eat clay from riverbanks.[1]
  • Their call is softer than most other macaws'.[1]

Vocabulary

macaw
A large, colorful parrot with a long tail from Central and South America.
clay lick
A riverbank where animals eat mineral-rich clay.
arboreal
Living mostly in trees.
pet trade
Buying and selling wild animals as pets, which can take too many from the wild.
vulnerable
A conservation label meaning a species faces a high risk of dying out in the wild.

See it in person

Sources

  1. [1] San Francisco Zoo & Gardens. “Blue-headed macaw.” https://www.sfzoo.org/blue-headed-macaw/ (accessed 2026-10-02)
  2. [2] IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. “Primolius couloni (Blue-headed Macaw).” https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22685593/132058374 (accessed 2026-10-02)

Facts last checked 2026-10-02.

More Parrots

A blue-and-yellow macaw flying with its wings spread wide over green trees.Blue-and-Yellow MacawAra araraunaA big blue-and-gold parrot of South American rainforests that mates for life and eats clay from riverbanks.A green blue-fronted amazon parrot with a blue forehead and yellow face perched on a branch.Blue-Fronted AmazonAmazona aestivaA green South American parrot with a blue forehead and yellow face, also called the turquoise-fronted amazon.A blue-throated macaw with a blue back and yellow chest perched in a tree.Blue-Throated MacawAra glaucogularisThe rarest macaw in the world, a blue-and-gold parrot of Bolivia's flooded Beni savanna with only about 400 left in the wild.Two green-and-yellow budgerigars close together against a dark background.BudgerigarMelopsittacus undulatusA small green-and-yellow parrot of Australia's dry interior, and the most widely known pet bird in the world.A bright yellow golden conure with green wing feathers perched in a tree.Golden ConureGuaruba guaroubaA bright yellow-and-green Brazilian parrot whose flock members help raise each other's chicks.A red green-winged macaw with blue and green wing feathers perched on a branch.Green-Winged MacawAra chloropterusA big red South American macaw, also called the red-and-green macaw, with green and blue wings and lines of tiny red feathers on its face.Two bright blue hyacinth macaws perched together on a branch among pink flowers.Hyacinth MacawAnodorhynchus hyacinthinusThe largest macaw, a bright blue parrot of central South America with yellow rings around its eyes.A green military macaw with a red forehead and blue wing feathers perched on a branch.Military MacawAra militarisA green macaw with a red forehead that lives in scattered mountain and forest populations from Mexico to Argentina.A green red-fronted macaw with a red forehead perched on a rope.Red-Fronted MacawAra rubrogenysA critically endangered green macaw with a red forehead that lives only in dry mountain valleys of central Bolivia.Two green red-lored amazon parrots with red wing patches flying against a gray sky.Red-Lored AmazonAmazona autumnalis (Salvin's amazon is the subspecies A. a. salvini)A green Central and South American parrot with red feathers above its beak. The Salvin's amazon is one of its subspecies.A green yellow-naped amazon parrot perched on a bare branch.Yellow-Naped AmazonAmazona auropalliataA green Central American parrot with a yellow patch on the back of its neck, now critically endangered because of the pet trade.