We blogged about the Tropical Butterfly House, Falconry and Wildlife Centre in Sheffield a few weeks ago and thought we’d update you with the latest news. The Centre is delighted to welcome two new additions to their range of exotic birds – a pair of Hahn macaws. And the best thing is that they are the cutest baby birds they’ve ever seen. They’re around 3 months old and the fetching pair are called Esteban and Ché.
Macaws are a type of parrot – in fact they’re the largest kind – but Hahn macaws are the smallest of the 18 different species of macaw, so they are often referred to as “mini-macaws”. They are also called red-shouldered macaws because of a distinctive red marking where the wings join the body, and they are native to the savannahs, palm groves and open woodland of South America.
Hahn’s macaws grow to a length of 30 cm (12 ins) from beak to tail and they feed on nuts, fruit, blossoms and seeds. In the breeding season they tend to be usually seen in mating pairs, but at other times of the year they congregate in large flocks.
As a species, they are very sociable and intelligent creatures, and Ché and Esteban have already developed playful and charismatic personalities. They’re still honing their flying skills – practising short hops from one perch or branch to another, and they’re also learning how to vocalise – more a case of screeches than whistles, so they sound like a squeaky toy dog at the moment!
The Centre’s Animal Presenter, Heather Scott, said about the new arrivals, “Ché and Esteban will make such fantastic additions to our Aerial Antics display; small in size but with big personalities, I think visitors will love their cheeky nature! It’s a real privilege to work with such beautiful and intelligent birds and training them for free-flight is very rewarding”
It will be several months before the mini-macaws are fully-trained, but visitors will be able to check how they’re doing as a lot of the training is carried out during the public displays, and that helps the birds become accustomed to performing in front of lots of people.
For the moment, though, Ché and Esteban are in quarantine, and won’t be on public show for another few weeks. Till then you can follow their progress on the Centre’s Facebook page and via Twitter.
And if you want to find out more about Sheffield, check out Hello Yorkshire.