Mimbres Valley in the 11th century. Breeding pens, perches, bones, and eggshell fragments have been uncovered. The straightforward nature of scarlet macaw breeding and the value of their plumes in trade created a market for trade wherein the animals were used in religious rites north to the Colorado Plateau region. Today the scarlet macaw is found worldwide in captivity, but is best represented in captivity in the Americas. Captive techniques developed from the pet trade have positively affected wild populations: in areas with low macaws populations, the "extra" babies that typically die in the nest may be reared by humans hands and released into the wild to bolster the population, as has been done by the Tambopata Macaw Project. Their captive diet, egg incubation, assisted hatching, hand rearing, co-parenting, parent-rearing, fledgling, maturation, and breeding are well understood within the avicultural community (AFA Watchbird magazine). See also The Ara Project (macaw reintroduction) The Macaw Society List of macaws Iago (Disney) References External links World Parrot Trust Parrot Encyclopedia — Species Profiles The Scarlet Macaw Genome Project Scarlet macaw videos on the Internet Bird Collection Stamps (15 countries) with RangeMap Ara macao conservation and reintroduction in Costa Rica scarlet macaw scarlet macaw Birds of Central America Birds of Colombia Birds of the Amazon Basin Birds of Ecuador Birds of Venezuela Birds of Trinidad and Tobago Birds of the Caribbean Talking birds National symbols of Honduras scarlet macaw scarlet macaw Articles containing video clips Species endangered by the pet trade