by Wolf » Thu Feb 25, 2016 8:04 am
Please understand that I really don't know all that much about macaws and most of the time I have to go looking for answers , I do that a lot any way. This is what I learned today, so far.
The Catalina and Harlequin macaws are very similar to each other as would be expected since both of them are hybrids with half of their lineage being from the Blue and Gold Macaw. The difference is that the Catalina macaw is a hybrid of the B&G macaw and the Scarlet Macaw while the Harlequin is a blend of the B&G and the Greenwing macaw.
While this tells us what the actual difference is between the two it does little to help us with visually identifying them. It seems that there is a neat little twist in their genetics in that both the Catalina and the Harlequin macaws appear to get their size and physical build from the father and the actual color is also dependent on which bird is the father, with the result that in the Catalina macaw if the father is a Scarlet macaw the offspring will closely resemble the coloration of the Harlequin macaw. Apparently the primary way to tell the difference between a Harlequin and a Catalina macaw is that the Catalina macaw has the long tapering tail of a Scarlet Macaw, which the Harlequin macaw lacks.
