The blue-and-yellow macaw is a large South American parrot with blue top parts and yellow underparts. It is a member of the large group of neotropical parrots known as macaws. It inhabits the forest, woodland and savannah of tropical South America. They are popular in aviculture because of their striking colour, ability to talk, ready availability in the marketplace, and close bonding to humans.
A black panther is the melanistic colour variant of any big cat species. Black panthers in Asia and Africa are leopards and those in the Americas are black jaguars. Close examination of the colour of these black cats will show that the typical markings are still present, but are hidden by the excess black pigment melanin, giving an effect similar to that of printed silk. This is called “ghost striping”.
The hadeda is a large (about 76 cm long), grey-to-partly brown species of ibis. It has a narrow, white, roughly horizontal stripe across its cheeks. This is sometimes called the “moustache” though it does not reach the mouth corners. The plumage over the wings has an iridescent purple sheen. The bird has blackish legs and a large grey-to-black bill with a red stripe on the upper mandible. The upper surfaces of the toes are of a similar red. The wings are powerful and broad, enabling quick take-offs and easy manoeuvring through dense tree cover. It has an extremely loud and distinctive “haa-haa-haa-de-dah” call—hence the name.
