# Great green macaw (*Ara ambiguus*)

Canonical page: https://creaturedata.com/animals/great-green-macaw  
Data as of: 2026-11-13

The great green macaw (Ara ambiguus), also called Buffon's macaw, is a living parrot in the bird family Psittacidae. The IUCN Red List lists the great green macaw as Critically Endangered, and its geographic range covers 108,000 km².

## Quick facts

| Fact | Value |
|---|---|
| Weight | 1.3 kg |
| Length | 85 cm – 90 cm |
| Lifespan | 29 years |
| Diet | Granivore |
| Main food | fruits, seeds |
| Habitat | forest |
| Egg incubation | 26 days |
| Young per litter or clutch | 2.4 |
| Reproduction | Eggs |
| Lifestyle | Perching |
| Migration | Sedentary |
| Conservation status | Critically Endangered (IUCN) |
| Countries on record | Not recorded |

## Introduced range

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists it as introduced in 1 country. Introduced: United Kingdom. Source: https://griis.org/ (CC BY 4.0).

## Classification

- kingdom: Animalia
- phylum: Chordata
- class: Aves
- order: Psittaciformes
- family: Psittacidae
- genus: Ara
- species: *Ara ambiguus* (Bechstein, 1811)

Synonyms: *Ara ambigua*, *Psittacus ambiguus*

## Common questions

### How much does a great green macaw weigh?

Adults typically weigh about 1.3 kg. The sheet places it in the medium size class.

### What does the great green macaw eat?

It is a granivore, and its trophic level is herbivore.

### Is the great green macaw endangered?

Yes. The IUCN Red List category is Critically Endangered (CR), a threatened category, in the global assessment.

### What habitat does the great green macaw live in?

It lives in forest. It is sedentary and perching.

### How many eggs does the great green macaw lay?

A clutch is 2 or 3 eggs.

### Who named Ara ambiguus?

The scientific name authority is (Bechstein, 1811). The species is also called Buffon's macaw.

### Is the great green macaw an invasive species?

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species lists the great green macaw as introduced in 1 country: United Kingdom, but does not flag it as invasive in any of them.

## Sources

- [An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1), CC0 1.0, E096-269. Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1
- [AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds](https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7), CC BY 4.0, v7. Tobias, J.A. et al. (2022) AVONET: morphological, ecological and geographical data for all birds. Ecology Letters 25: 581–597. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13898. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.16586228.v7
- [Catalogue of Life eXtended Release](https://www.checklistbank.org/dataset/316691), CC BY 4.0, 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf
- [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org), per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed), 2026-11-11. Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence).
- [Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS)](https://griis.org/), CC BY 4.0, 2026-11-13. Pagad, S., Genovesi, P., Carnevali, L., Schigel, D. & McGeoch, M.A. (2018) Introducing the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species. Scientific Data 5: 170202. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.202. Country checklists published through GBIF by the IUCN SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group.
- [Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org), CC0 1.0, 2026-11-11. Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service).
- [Wikipedia (English)](https://en.wikipedia.org), CC BY-SA 4.0, 2026-11-11. Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).

Cite as: Great green macaw (Ara ambiguus). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/great-green-macaw