Food and Feeding

 Most macaws feed on the fruit of trees, nuts, seeds, fruits and berries. The large macaws can crack even the hard-shelled Brazil nuts with their strong beak, extracting the kernels with the beak and tongue. Macaws can eat unripe seeds and fruits, those with tough shells and spines, or distasteful ones containing poisons - foods that other birds cannot deal with. Some macaws include flowers and nectar in their diet. Many macaws eat clay which they find on exposed river banks. This probably helps them to safely digest poisonous seeds and supplies them with minerals such as calcium and sodium.