What do I have?!

[Lindsey]

So, probably four years ago I bought a very raggedy parrot from a pet store. The store owners did not know whether the bird was male or female, and they did not know what species it was. They told me they thought it was a dwarf hyacinth macaw, which is something I had never heard of. Well, looking at it right away, I knew it wasn't any type of hyacinth macaw. They guessed that it was female, so I went along with that. She was missing almost every feather on her body, but I could tell that she was blue. When I took her to the vet, who is not an avian specialist (he's all I have here) he opened up a bird book and said he thought she was a Spix's macaw. I had never heard of that either, but she did look alot like the bird in the picture.

I just googled Spix's macaws, and apparently they are a big deal. In fact, I'm not even supposed to own one. I just have a really hard time believing that this bird whom I picked up for $50 at a pet shop is a severely endangered/extinct species. She must be something else. If, by some freakish act of nature, she WAS a Spix's macaw, what do I do?! Who do I contact? I imagine she'd have to go away and enter a breeding program somewhere.

Worst part? I don't own a camera. However, I know my bird, and I can compare pictures.

[Lindsey]

WOOH! I figured it out with google! She is a blue amazon mutation! Yay! No trip to the rainforest for Lulu!

I will see about borrowing a camera and post a picture just for confirmation. Very happy.

[Shelby]

Congrats on figuring out what your bird is! You would have been incredibly lucky to find a $50 Spix's macaw. (You should probably change your profile info since you don't actually have a Spix's macaw - don't want any scientists to get excited for nothing haha). A blue Amazon is probably pretty rare too...

[RedDragon1288]

Blue mutation are very rare and only a few are produce every year. Congrats!

[Michael]

Key difference between a macaw and an amazon is that macaws have very long tails but amazon's have short ones. It may be possible to mistake a Spix macaw with a broken tail for that blue mutation amazon but unless someone played a prank by gluing enormous tailfeathers on your bird's butt, can't confuse it with a macaw.

BTW just searched blue mutation amazon. Quiet an interesting color (wouldn't breed it on purpose though). Happened across a blue mutation eclectus, weird.

[Shelby]

Just got a chance to Google "blue mutation amazon" pictures and WOW that is a stunning blue. How is your bird doing now? Sounds like that pet shop was pretty crappy.

Michael, is it really difficult to breed the blue mutation? Or does breeding color mutations lead to harmful genetic defects? I know next to nothing about the scientific aspects of breeding so I'm curious.

[Polarn]

If I am am not wrong breeding blue mutation of the amazon first requires you to ge ta compatible blue male and female, think i red somewhere tat if you breed two blue they always get blue chicks, however.. you gotta find two nonrelated ones to begin with.

[Lindsey]

Sorry for the delay, I don't get online much (I spend 95% of my time with my birds, LOL). She does have much shorter tail feathers and she is brighter blue than most of the Spix's pictured on google. (How do I change my profile?) Now that I look at Lulu and Emma side by side, I can't believe I never figured it out. They have similar proportions and features, and they make similar sounds (though Emma is MUCH louder).

Lulu is wonderful now. Thanks for asking! I've had her for about four years, but she was pretty messed up when I got her and she is rather timid and standoffish. She will step up for food, but only for food (I can tell she really doesn't enjoy human contact). TBH, she would really do alot better in a house where she was the only bird, or with maybe one other bird. She needs lots of one-on-one bonding and I just have too many to give her the attention she needs. I give her an hour or two every day and she has made some progress, but she shows zero signs of speech or mimicking. She doesn't even do the microwave, which my budgies picked up almost right away. She also bites when she's scared. If something loud happens for whatever reason (or even if Alex just screams at me while I'm holding her) she flinches and then chomps on me as hard as she can. Poor girl. I wish she could tell me what she went through before I got her.

[Shelby]

How do I change my profile?

Scroll to the top and click "User Control Panel", then click the "profile" tab.

It sounds like you've made some good progress with her. I hope she continues to become more confident and less afraid as she lives longer with people who treat her well!

[Lindsey]

Did it work?