Little Blue Macaw

Open encyclopedia reference

Spix's macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii), also known as the little blue macaw, or simply blue macaw, is a macaw species that was endemic to Brazil. It is a member of tribe Arini in the subfamily Arinae (Neotropical parrots), part of the family Psittacidae (the true parrots). It was first described in 1638 by German naturalist Georg Marcgrave when he was working in Pernambuco in Dutch Brazil. It is named for German biologist Johann Baptist von Spix, who collected a specimen in 1819 on the bank of the São Francisco River near Juazeiro. This bird has been completely extirpated from its natural range, and following a several-year-long survey, the IUCN officially declared it extinct in the wild in 2019. However, after over 20 years of conservation efforts, 200 macaws have been bred from captive birds, and 52 individual birds have since been reintroduced into their natural environment in June 2022. The bird is a medium-size parrot weighing about 300 grams (11 oz), smaller than most of the large macaws.

Wikipedia contributors, Spix's macaw; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:09:22.615846+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Cyanopsitta spixii (Wagler, 1832)

Name authority

(Wagler, 1832)

Common name

Little Blue Macaw

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Psittaciformes

Family

Psittacidae

Genus

Cyanopsitta

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classAves
9. orderPsittaciformes
10. familyPsittacidae
11. genusCyanopsitta Bonaparte, 1854
12. speciesCyanopsitta spixii (Wagler, 1832)

Close classified relatives

No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.

Browse 133 records assigned to Psittacidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=177658 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:32NS5. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.