Cuban Macaw

Little is known about the behaviour of the Cuban macaw and its extinct Caribbean relatives. Gundlach reported that it vocalised loudly like its Central American relatives and that it lived in pairs or families. Its speech imitation abilities were reportedly inferior to those of other parrots. Nothing is known about its breeding habits or its eggs, but one reported nest was a hollow in a palm. The skull roof of the subfossil cranium was flattened, indicating the Cuban macaw fed on hard seeds, especially from palms. This is consistent with the habits of their large relatives on mainland South America and distinct from those of smaller, mainly frugivorous relatives. In 1876, Gundlach wrote that the Cuban macaw ate fruits, seeds of the royal palm (Roystonea regia) and the chinaberry tree (Melia azedarach), as well as other seeds and shoots. Cuba has many species of palms, and those found in swamps were probably most important to the Cuban macaw. The pulp surrounding the seeds of the chinaberry tree were probably the part consumed by the Cuban macaw. In 2005, a new species of chewing louse, Psittacobrosus bechsteini, was described based on a dead specimen discovered on a museum skin of the Cuban macaw. It is thought to have been unique to this species, and is therefore an example of coextinction. The feather mite species Genoprotolichus eurycnemis and Distigmesikya extincta have also been reported from Cuban macaw skins, the latter new to science.

The range of the Cuban macaw's distribution at the time of European settlement on the main island of Cuba is unclear, but the species was reportedly becoming rare by the mid-19th century. It may have been restricted to the central and western part of Cuba. Most accounts from the 19th century are based on Gundlach's reports from the immense Zapata Swamp, where the species was somewhat common near the northern edge. By the 1870s, it was becoming rarer and had retreated to the interior. The subfossil skull from Sagua La Grande is the northernmost and easternmost record of the Cuban macaw. One subfossil rostrum was found in a cave. Caves are usually not visited by macaws, but the surrounding region is possibly a former swamp. The Cuban macaw had also inhabited Isla de la Juventud (previously called Isla de Pinos/the Isle of Pines) off Cuba, but the American ornithologists Outram Bangs and Walter R. Zappey reported that the last pair was shot near La Vega in 1864. Early writers also claimed it lived on Haiti and Jamaica, but this is no longer accepted. The habitat of the Cuban macaw was open savanna terrain with scattered trees, typical of the Zapata Swamp area. Cuba was originally widely covered in forest, much of which has since been converted to cropland and pastures. Lomas de Rompe, where the macaw was also reported, had rainforest-like gallery forest.

Hunting has been proposed as a factor in the extinction of the Cuban macaw. Parrots were hunted, kept as pets, and traded by Native Americans in the Caribbean before the arrival of Europeans. The Cuban macaw was reportedly "stupid" and slow to escape, and therefore was easily caught. It was killed for food; the Italian traveler Gemelli Careri found the meat tasty, but Gundlach considered it tough. Archaeological evidence suggests the Cuban macaw was hunted in Havana in the 16th–18th centuries. It may also have been persecuted as a crop pest, though it did not live near dwellings. In addition to being kept as pets locally, many Cuban macaws (perhaps thousands of specimens) were traded and sent to Europe. This trade has also been suggested as a contributing cause for extinction. Judging by the number of preserved specimens that originated as captives, the species was probably not uncommon in European zoos and other collections. It was popular as a cagebird, despite its reputation for damaging items with its beak. Furthermore, collectors caught young birds by observing adults and felling the trees in which they nested, although sometimes nestlings were accidentally killed. This practice reduced population numbers and selectively destroyed the species' breeding habitat. This means of collection continues today with the Cuban parakeet (Psittacara euops) and the Cuban amazon (Amazona leucocephala). A hurricane in 1844 is said to have wiped out the population of Cuban macaws from Pinar del Río. Subsequent hurricanes in 1846 and 1856 further destroyed their habitat in western Cuba and scattered the remaining population. In addition, a tropical storm hit the Zapata Swamp in 1851. With a healthy macaw population, such events could have been beneficial by creating suitable habitat. However, given the species' precarious position, it may have resulted in fragmented habitat and caused them to seek food in areas where they were more vulnerable to hunting. The extinction date of the Cuban macaw is uncertain. Gundlach's sightings in the Zapata Swamp in the 1850s and Zappey's second-hand report of a pair on Isla de la Juventud in 1864 are the last reliable accounts. In 1886, Gundlach reported that he believed birds persisted in southern Cuba, which led Greenway to suggest that the species survived until 1885. Parrots are often among the first species to be exterminated from a given locality, especially islands. According to the British writer Errol Fuller, aviculturalists are rumoured to have bred birds similar in appearance to the Cuban macaw. These birds, however, are reportedly larger in size than the Cuban macaw, having been bred from larger macaw species.