Spix’s macaw

What it is

Spix’s macaw is a small blue parrot endemic to gallery woodland along the São Francisco drainage in Bahia, Brazil. BirdLife / IUCN list it as Extinct in the Wild. The last accepted wild bird disappeared around 2000. Captive flocks in Germany, Brazil, and elsewhere kept the species alive. Releases near Curaçá began in 2022; a few chicks hatched in the wild. The free-flying group has numbered in the low tens and still depends on supplemental feeding: IUCN EW therefore still applies.

Range

Historically a narrow Caatinga corridor in Bahia. Today: breeding centres plus a contested reintroduction site at Curaçá.

What happened

Trapping for the cage-bird trade and the cutting of caraiba woodland emptied the wild. The 2022-24 releases showed the species can fly and nest again. In 2025 a circovirus outbreak and a breakdown between ICMBio and breeding partners put the tiny wild group at risk. Do not call this a recovered wild population.

When / status

IUCN: Extinct in the Wild. A handful of released birds, not a restored species.

Human role

The pet trade and habitat loss removed it; captivity kept a gene pool; reintroduction is unfinished and fragile.

Sources

IUCN / BirdLife (Cyanopsitta spixii, EW); Vercillo et al. 2024 (Diversity) on the Curaçá releases; 2025 press on the circovirus crisis.