Martinique macaw

Martinique macaw
Hypothetical 1907 illustration by Keulemans, based on Bouton's description
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Psittaciformes
Family: Psittacidae
Genus: Ara
Species:
A. martinicus
Binomial name
Ara martinicus
(Rothschild, 1905)
Location of Martinique
Synonyms
List
  • Anodorhynchus martinicus Rothschild, 1905
  • Anodorhynchus coeruleus Rothschild, 1905
  • Ara erythrura Rothschild, 1907
  • Ara martinica

The Martinique macaw or orange-bellied macaw (Ara martinicus) is a hypothetical extinct species of macaw which may have been endemic to the Lesser Antillean island of Martinique, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was scientifically named by Walter Rothschild in 1905, based on a 1630s description of "blue and orange-yellow" macaws by Jacques Bouton [pt]. No other evidence of its existence is known, but it may have been identified in contemporary artwork. Some writers have suggested that the birds observed were actually blue-and-yellow macaws (Ara ararauna). The "red-tailed blue-and-yellow macaw" (Ara erythrura), another species named by Rothschild in 1907 based on a 1658 account, is thought to be identical to the Martinique macaw, if either one ever existed.

The Martinique macaw is one of 13 extinct macaw species that have been proposed to have lived in the Caribbean islands. Many of these species are now considered dubious because only three are known from physical remains, and there are no extant endemic macaws on the islands today. Macaws were frequently transported between the Caribbean islands and the South American mainland in both prehistoric and historic times, so it is impossible to know whether contemporaneous reports refer to imported or native species.

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