Spix and the Spix’s macaw

by Ria Winters

This is another study of the Spix’s Macaws.
Included in the painting is some of the history of this bird.
Most of you know that Cyanopsitta spixii was named after it’s discoverer, J.B. von Spix, but not many may know that Spix had originally given it another name which was Arara Hyacinthinus.
Johann Baptist von Spix (1781 – 1826) was a German naturalist. During his relatively short life he compiled an impressive list of publications he made after his expeditions.
From 1817 until 1820 he travelled through Brazil together with another naturalist named Von Martius, returning with specimens of 6,500 plants, 2,700 insects, 85 mammals, 350 birds, 150 amphibians and 116 fish. These formed the basis of the collection of the Natural History Museum in Munich of which Spix was the first conservator. During this Brazilian expedition he discovered the Spix’s Macaw.

The journeys of these early naturalists are impressive; they were brave pioneers that had none of the comforts of our modern way of traveling. Unfortunately Spix lost his life to his Brazilian adventure: he died in 1926, six years after his return from the ills contracted during the trip.
He wrote a 4-volume narrative of the expedition “Reise in Brasilien in den Jahren 1817 bis 1820”. The volume that I found in the library depot of the University of Amsterdam is not so much a travel log but more of a documentary with stunning drawings and etchings. How did someone in such a difficult journey make such beautiful and detailed art? Or maybe the art was done afterwards by an artist working on the instruction of Spix? The book doesn’t say but it definitely deserves more attention than the oblivioun it is in now.
One of the maps shows the area where Spix discovered his blue macaw for the first time: in Joazeiro at the Sao Francisco river in the province of Bahia.
I painted part of the map as a background for the parrots.


(This is a page from the Brazilian journal.)


He also published a book about birds in Brazil called “Avium Brasiliensium Species Novae”. In this book he describes our parrot for the first time. He calls it Arara Hyacinthinus to distinguish it from the other blue macaw in his book that he calls Anodorhynchus Maximiliani (this is the macaw that we now know as the Hyacinth Macaw). In fact, Spix came up with Anodorhynchus as a new species name for the large blue macaws with their notched bills. The Spix's Macaw obviously did not belong to this group hence Arara.
The Spix’s Macaw remains a so called monotype genus: the only member of the genus Cyanopsitta (Cyanopsitta translates to blue parrot).
Anyway, I included part of Spix’s latin description in my painting too (above, left).
J.G. Wagler, first assistant to Spix and later Director of the Zoological Museum at the University of Munich, renamed the bird in 1932 and gave it the name of the man who discovered it. Good for him because the Arara Hyacinthinus was confusing because of the other blue parrot.

Hundred and seventy years after its discovery the Spix’s Macaw became extinct in the wild.
Luckily the species is conserved by a captive population. There are approx. 70 individuals and there are a several breeding programs that will pave the way for future reintroductions.

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