Habitat
Humid lowland forest and adjacent cleared areas, wooded foothills and canyons, arid and semi-arid woodland, and pine-oak, humid lowland and riparian forest, moving seasonally to dense thorn-forest, shade coffee plantations and degraded remnant forest patches. From sea-level - 3,100 m, but mainly 500 - 1,500 m.
Military Macaw (Ara militaris) [XC260385]
by Patricio Mena Valenzuela from Napo: km 11.6 Narupa-Loreto road, Ecuador (call, calls)
Military Macaw (Ara militaris) [XC353047]
by Richard E. Webster from Rancho Santa Barbara, Sonora, Mexico (call)
Subspecies
Sometimes treated as conspecific with Great Green Macaw (Ara ambiguus), but in spite of evidence of interbreeding the characters of the two forms are consistently different over their respective ranges.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
mexicanus Ridgway, 1915 - Arid western Mexico (Sonora to Isthmus of Tehuantepec).
militaris (Linnaeus, 1766) - North-western Venezuela, Colombia, eastern Ecuador and northern Peru.
bolivianus Reichenow, 1908 - Tropical Bolivia and extreme north-western Argentina.
sheffleri van Rossem & Hachisuka, 1939 - Arid western Mexico (Sonora to Isthmus of Tehuántepec).
Similar Species
Almost identical, but probably allopatric, Great Green Macaw (Ara ambiguus) which has a greener hindneck and pale-tipped maxilla.
References
See References.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet