Green Wing Macaw - red and green macaw as Pets

The green-winged macaw, also called the red-and-green macaw (Ara chloropterus), is one of the largest parrots you can keep, a metre of bright red bird with an outsized personality to match. Well-socialised individuals are steady, affectionate and genuinely bonded to their people, which is a big part of the appeal. It is also a serious commitment. The size, the volume, the constant chewing and a lifespan measured in decades are all real, and they do not soften with time. This guide covers what the bird is actually like to live with, and who should think twice.

History and Origin

Green-winged macaws are native to South America, where they range widely across tropical forests, woodland edges and riverine areas depending on the region.³ They are listed under CITES Appendix II, which means international trade is regulated and the paperwork genuinely matters.¹ Australia has strict rules on importing pet birds, so anyone acquiring one here should understand where it came from and that it was legally sourced.

Appearance and Physical Characteristics

These are mostly bright red birds, with broad green across the upper wings and blue toward the flight feathers. The face carries a bare pale skin patch marked with fine red feather lines around the eye, which is the easiest way to tell them from scarlet macaws at a glance.² Adults commonly reach around 90 to 95 cm from beak to tail tip, so closer to a metre than 60 cm. It is one of the largest macaws, second only to the hyacinth macaw.² The beak is large and strongly hooked, built for cracking hard foods and for serious chewing. The feet are dark grey with a sure, climbing grip, which is why latches and loose fittings are best treated as puzzles rather than barriers.

Temperament and Personality

A well-socialised green-winged macaw is often described as calm and people-focused, but "rarely aggressive" is too absolute for any large parrot. Like other macaws, they can bite hard when frightened, overstimulated, guarding a space, or when their body language goes unread. Noise is normal communication, not misbehaviour. They are also highly social. A single bird relies on its household for daily interaction, and a thin social life can slide into screaming, feather-damaging behaviour or other stress signs over time.⁴

Is a Green-Winged Macaw Right for You?

For most households, honestly, this is a lot of bird. The costs of getting it wrong tend to show up slowly: chronic stress, noise complaints, damaged homes and a bird that outlives the plans made for it. Before you buy, work through the checks that save heartbreak:

• Time: can you provide daily social contact and enrichment for decades?⁵
• Noise: are neighbours, housemates and your own routine compatible with a loud bird?
• Damage: can you accept ongoing chewing risk and manage it with supervision and set-up?
• Veterinary care: do you have access to an avian veterinarian and a budget for regular check-ups and emergencies?
• Source: consider adopting through welfare organisations where possible, and avoid impulse buying.⁵

If you are in Australia, note the import rules. Australian Government guidance is that importing pet psittacine birds is limited and tightly controlled, and for personal pet imports is generally only allowed from New Zealand under specific permit and quarantine conditions, alongside environment (wildlife trade) requirements.^{9, 10}

Care and Housing

A big cage is important, but it is not a full life. Choose the largest enclosure you can realistically fit and maintain, with enough horizontal space for movement, since birds do not use tall, narrow cages the way people imagine. RSPCA guidance emphasises space, opportunities for flight and exercise, and an environment designed to prevent boredom.⁷ Parrots need regular chances to move, climb, chew appropriate materials and make choices. Where birds are confined for long periods, they should have safe opportunities to fly or exercise outside the enclosure, with hazards controlled: windows, ceiling fans, other pets, open water and toxic fumes.⁷

Day to day, welfare improves when the bird can:

• Use multiple perches of different diameters and textures.
• Access chew and foraging items that are rotated to stay interesting.
• Retreat from household traffic and noise when it wants to rest.⁸

Most households find that out-of-cage time works best as a predictable daily routine on a play stand or climbing area, with the bird engaged in foraging, training, or supervised destruction of safe chewables rather than the house itself.

Health and Lifespan

Think in decades, not years. Macaws sit at the far end of the parrot lifespan spectrum, and RSPCA guidance flags that some birds may live 10 to 50 years, which makes this a genuine long-term commitment rather than a phase-of-life pet.⁵ Planning for that span of care, meaning housing, diet, enrichment and avian vet access, matters more than any single lifespan number. Individual longevity varies widely with genetics, husbandry, safety and veterinary care. Treat any claim of "nearly 100 years" as exceptional rather than expected.

Diet and Nutrition

Pellets are a base, not the whole story. A good commercial pelleted diet is commonly used as the foundation for companion macaws, but it should be supported with a wide range of fresh vegetables and other whole foods, plus carefully managed higher-fat items like nuts depending on the bird's body condition and activity.⁶

Aim for:

• High-quality pellets as a consistent baseline, chosen with avian-vet guidance for your bird's life stage.
• Daily vegetables and leafy greens for variety, texture and foraging opportunities.⁶
• Fruit in smaller amounts, often treated as a high-sugar sometimes-food.⁶

Foods to avoid: chocolate, caffeine, alcohol and avocado are commonly listed as dangerous for pet birds. If you are unsure about a food, assume "not yet" and check with an avian veterinarian.⁶

A Few Things Worth Knowing

• Chewing is not optional. In the wild, large parrots spend much of the day working for food and interacting with their environment. In captivity that time needs replacing with foraging, enrichment and safe chewing materials, or the bird will invent its own projects.⁴
• They can be loud. Green-winged macaws are often not constant screamers, but they can be very loud, especially at dawn and dusk, during excitement, or when routines change. Close to neighbours, noise tolerance is a practical constraint.
• Escape artists. That strong grip and hooked beak make simple latches and fittings easy to defeat, so enclosures need proper fastenings.

The Bottom Line

Green-winged macaws can be magnificent companions in the right setting, but they are not set-and-forget pets. The practical realities are size, sound, chewing and a lifespan that can stretch across decades. Give one the space, the daily attention, the enrichment and the avian veterinary care it needs, and it can be a genuinely rewarding bird to live with. Go in without that, and it is the bird that pays for it.

References

1. CITES, Ara chloropterus (listing and taxonomy)
2. Animal Diversity Web (University of Michigan), Ara chloropterus overview
3. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, species accounts (search: Ara chloropterus)
4. RSPCA Knowledgebase, keeping birds entertained (enrichment and behaviour)
5. RSPCA Knowledgebase, are birds the right companion animals?
6. VCA Animal Hospitals, macaws feeding (diet basics and unsafe foods)
7. RSPCA Knowledgebase, housing birds (space, exercise, enrichment)
8. RSPCA Australia, how to help your pet bird have a good life (environment, fumes, noise, welfare)
9. Australian Government (DAFF), Importing your pet bird (requirements and quarantine)
10. Australian Government (DCCEEW), wildlife trade permits (live imports and Live Import List)