Do parrots recognize their own species?

This is an odd question but I often wonder about this…I understand parrots recognize there own species…Is there any confusion when lets says a Blue n Gold sees a Blue Throated Macaw since there color is almost the same? We know they are a total different specie but there coloration is very close and I always wondered how they can really tell…The Noble
resembles the Hahns…The Military resembles the Buffon…The Lears resembles the Hyacinth..

What an interesting question. If I understand you correctly,  you are asking if parrots recognize their own species should a similarly colored species be nearby. Certainly they do.  In much the same we way recognize immediate family members by size, height, skin color, hair color, specific possible idiosyncratic behaviors, how they talk, and the location in which we see them. We learn about family members via tiny observations that we are not aware of as well as making conscious observations.  Moving onto birds in the wild, we find that ornithologists and bird watchers differentiate different species in a similar way using diagnostic field criteria.  Observable factors such as size; color; identifying marks and color patterns on the head, body and wings of of the bird such as wing bars, eye stripes or spots; the bird’s song or vocalization;  the size and shape of the tail; the flight silhouette; it’s feeding patterns; it’s habitat and diet can all contribute to identification.

Now we’ve laid out how we humans differentiate different species of birds let’s look at how birds might accomplish the same thing. When it comes to identification we move into an area where birds have a little bit more of an advantage. Not only are all of the above field marks available to birds but recent research has indicated that the bird’s eye also see in the ultraviolet (UV) wavelength.  Even when two species are difficult for the human to identify in those locations where their ranges overlap or they coexist, birds are able to distinguish their relatives.  Robert Bleiweiss from the University of Wisconsin has been quoted as saying although two sibling species of the South Amercian mountain tanager are extraordinarily similar,  other than back color which often difficult for observers to see from the ground, their feathers show distinct patterns when viewed under UV light. Budgerigars also have that same feather fluorescence when illuminated with UV light.  Along with the factors we humans use to identify specific species, we can add another element -  data from the UV wavelength light that only the birds can use without further equipment.

It’s also wise to bear in mind that those parings you mention in your question for the most part have differing ranges where they live and breed in addition to identifiable field marks. For instance in your first example, the throat patch on the Blue (Ara glaucogularis) versus the Blue and Gold Macaw (B&G) (Ara ararauna) is clearly diagnostic to even the human eye. Although the ranges may overlap at the extreme southern end of the B&G range and the northern end of the Blues’ range, I suspect it’s not the norm given that B&Gs are far more numerous than the “Blues” who are endangered in the wild. It would seem they can easily tell their “own”.  The same criteria listed above could be used for the other pairings you mention. 

Lee McGuire for Susan Friedman and the LLP Grad Team