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Military Vs. Buffons

Animallover03

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The Iowa Parrot Rescue has a buffons, and has had a few militaries over the years.

Here is Kozmo, the buffons:





(she holds her wings like that, and is unable to extend them any more than that)

Pictures of different military macaws:




(Caribe's feathers are discolored because of a bad previous home. This is after they had begun to improve)

(Caribe with her new owner and a B&G)
 

BirdGuy21

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You can adopt him.................... :)
I'll tell Kim that you said that! Haha I would seriously love to, but I don't think my neighbors would be too pleased. Then again, their three dogs do bark for 8.5 hours a day...... Everyone at the rescue says the little conure's are worse noise wise because of their pitch and frequency of calls, and Scully sure lives up to that; so.....

The Iowa Parrot Rescue has a buffons, and has had a few militaries over the years.
Beautiful birds! To my inexperienced eye our guy looks just like your Buffon's, but I'm not positive. I'd like to get another look at him and take some more pictures. Hopefully soon after Thanksgiving I'll be able to go down and see him.
 

sunnysmom

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I'll tell Kim that you said that! Haha I would seriously love to, but I don't think my neighbors would be too pleased. Then again, their three dogs do bark for 8.5 hours a day...... Everyone at the rescue says the little conure's are worse noise wise because of their pitch and frequency of calls, and Scully sure lives up to that; so.....

QUOTE]

You can tell Kim I said it. LOL. I will own up to it. And now that you potentially have a bird sitter.......... :D
 

Macawnutz

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So, I REALLY looked deep into my macaws eyes today trying to solve the eye ring mystery. The closest eye ring I have is Maui, my scarlet. Is the eye ring on the buffons a sure way to know?

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Okay, never noticed the hy "lashes" as much as did in the photo.... weird!



 

Aubrey

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melissasparrots

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@BirdGuy21 My first impression was that your bird was a buffon's or a buffon'sXmilitary cross. I am surely no expert. However, even when cameras and lighting distorts color, I feel like Buffon's have a slightly different beak shape than militaries. Your bird has that beak shape...almost. There are a few people out there that breed buffon's. You might try sending them his picture. If he is in fact a pure buffon's, you might look into getting him into a breeding situation. This is one species that seriously needs to be worked with.
 

BirdGuy21

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Your birds are beautiful @Macawnutz! And great pictures, now you can say you have their glamor shots haha! Your Military's eye has more yellow than this birds eye did, that's for sure. It seems like your Scarlet's eye more closely match this mac, but not 100%. I'm not sure if the eye ring is a be-all end-all way to tell a Military from a Buffon's, but it has come up on all the websites I've found that talk about identification.

@BirdGuy21 My first impression was that your bird was a buffon's or a buffon'sXmilitary cross. I am surely no expert. However, even when cameras and lighting distorts color, I feel like Buffon's have a slightly different beak shape than militaries. Your bird has that beak shape...almost. There are a few people out there that breed buffon's. You might try sending them his picture. If he is in fact a pure buffon's, you might look into getting him into a breeding situation. This is one species that seriously needs to be worked with.
That's a good idea, I will try to get some better pictures first and find some breeders to send to. You just reminded me, we have someone who volunteers for the rescue that worked for the Ara Project for a while. If you're unfamiliar with them, they breed and release Buffon's and Scarlet Macaw's as a conservation program in Costa Rica, I believe. I should send her a few pictures, I bet she would know- having worked with them in the wild and all :).

My real strong interest in this is partly due to the fact that if he is a Buffon's, he is extremely endangered. Not that we don't assess our potential adopters for our birds, but if he would be adopted out I think we would need to have some pretty strict guidelines. If he turns out to be a Buffon's, I'd like him to go to a home that understands the situation of Ara ambiguus. And to be honest, because I really fell for the guy..the way he looked at me with those expressive eyes.
 

BirdGuy21

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Here are pictures of Pinkerton's (Buffons)tail colors as a baby in 2002. I totally agree that there have been more hybrids because of the confusion between the two species.

View attachment 261760 View attachment 261762
I think this birds color looks very similar to Pinkerton's green. It could be because he was in not so great conditions and on a very poor diet, but his green is definitely closer to this color.
 

sunnysmom

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I really want to meet him! (Not to adopt. Lol). But I need to see this beautiful boy in person. : )
 

aooratrix

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The eye ring depends on perception of color, which is problematic, as it depends on the individual. However, the overall feather color is unmistakable in person in a true Buffons. They are yellow-green, which I perceive as chartreuse. Anything Kelly green is a military, period. Also, the size of beak is unmistakable: their beaks are huge. They are right up there with GWs and Hys.

I spoke with Barbara several times, and she was an expert. She certainly explained it well, but I can't speak to it authoritatively. I just haven't been around that many in person, probably 2 or 3 true Buffons.

I'd love to know the weight of this bird.
 
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