Abstract
I acquired my pair of Yellow-collareds in October of 1979. Both had been purchased by separate parties for pets approximately 3 Yz years before and had remained as pets until September 1979.
They were removed from the house and put in separate cages in the garage to get acquainted. When they were put together they seemed very compatible, and looked like a pair, one was larger with a broader beak, etc. They were surgically sexed and were indeed a pair.
I could find only one article on the breeding of the Yellow-collared and had much difficulty finding any useful information about them.
I brought them home and had to put them in an area with a lot of action. The flight was 4' x 8' x 8' and exposed to children, barking dogs, and the weekly use of a lawnmower. The birds took it very well and were not particularly nervous, perhaps because they had been pets previously. The male was never a really tame bird, his cage was in the family room and he said, "HeIJo", but was not let out and handled. The female was tame and easily handled by her owner and friends, says "Hello", but was kept in a bird room and was not dependent on people for entertainment and not unduly attached to humans. Therefore, both reverted to being just birds very quickly. Both are calm
when you enter the flight, but even the tame female would never come to me after being given her freedom in a flight.
After a couple of weeks in the flight I put up a box, about 12" x 14" x 16" deep. The pair immediately started inspecting it and went in and out for about three days. After that, I didn't see them go near it again.
In April, we noticed that the macaws were getting progressively noisier, so we decided to hang a new box ( 12" x 12" x 22" deep) up for them. They just seemed to ignore its presence for a couple of weeks. Finally during the week of April 13th - 19th both birds were often seen going in and out of the box and acted very nervous if caught doing so.
The following week of the 20th, the hen spent much of her time sitting in the nest and chewing the wood on the back of the box. Her vent was beginning to look swollen.
Upon inspection on Wednesday the 23rd, she looked even more swollen, but the shavings were not even arranged for nesting. On Thursday, she was only seen once very briefly and the male was feeding much more frequently than usual.
I had lost a lutino ringneck to eggbinding the week before, so when I hadn't seen the macaw hen by Friday noon, I decided that I'd better check again.
The male scrambled out when he heard me coming, I carefully opened the side door and the hen moved just enough to reveal a concave and her 1st Egg, April 25, 1980.
On the 26th, the male was seen periodically during the day, eating and then going back into the nest box. At about 3:30 p.m., she came out and was seen eating, carrying on a loud conversation with her mate, breeding, eating some more and finally returning to the nest after nearly 30 minutes. I presume incubation
has not started because of her lengthy stay from the box. At 5 :00 p.m., she was again out sitting with the male but headed for the box when she saw us.
April 27th - 6:30 a.m., only the male was out, she peeked out to see what the alarm was as I approached. I never saw her out today.
April 28th - Male goes in and out frequently, haven't seen her again today. April 29th - Caught her out briefly at 3:30 this afternoon. She now has 2 eggs.
May 5th - I have gone out every 15 minutes for several hours in the evenings and have yet to see here out again. I've looked in the box several times, but I can't even get a glimpse of the eggs.
May 6th - My curiosity got the best of me today. She had chewed a small hole in the back of the box, so as I was looking in the side door, I tilted the box just enough to put my finger through the hole and poke her, she moved just enough to reveal 3 eggs.
May 13th - I pushed her off the eggs with a paint stick and took 1 egg out, it was a cloudy day and the egg was mottled looking so I couldn't decide if it was fertile or not. I reached for another egg and she reached around the stick and bit me, I decided I'd better just leave them alone, before "I" broke an egg.
May 15th-17th - Each day I have moved her aside to look at her eggs. I've decided to leave the eggs and let her try raising them on her own.
May 18th - At about 4:00 p.m., I was heading towards the flight with greens, when to my surprise, both birds were out. I ran and beat her to the nest box!