Til Death Do Us Part

In honor of the upcoming Valentine's Day holiday I wanted to share with you a true love story. This story begins high in the canopy of a Costa Rican Rainforest. Here is where a female first saw from across the tree-tops the most wonderful shades of scarlet with accents of blue and yellow. She immediately fell in love when she looked into his light yellow eyes and he felt the same way. The two then began their lifelong journey together. Who are they? They are the Scarlet Macaw family.



Scarlet Macaw's are very unique in the fact that they are among the few bird species that mate for life. This may not seem very impressive, however, their life span is approximately 70 years. Macaw's form monogamous relationships and tend to breed young about every 2-3 years. They are also unique in the fact that both the males and the females take active parts in raising the young. Male birds can often be seen hunting for and feeding the young. The young birds and their parents then live together as a family until the young have reached sexual maturity and go to find a mate of their own.

The even more impressive part is that if one of the partners dies, the other will never seek another mate. It has also been said that often times if one bird dies the other bird will die soon after even if the bird was in perfect health. Brings controversy to the question of can one die of a broken heart!

The above picture (not the best quality) is a pair of mating Scarlet Macaw's that we saw in Carara National Park when we were on our anniversary trip to Costa Rica.

Happy Valentine's Day to all and may you find a lifetime of happiness with your Macaw!