More than 1500 bird species are found in the Amazon Basin, while South America as a whole is home to roughly one-third the world's birds.
Many birds found in the Amazon are northern or southern migrants, wintering in or passing though the rainforest at certain times of the year.
Macaws are famous for gathering by the hundreds, even thousands, along the clay cliffs of the Amazon river where they feed on minerals which help the birds process toxins found in the seeds they eat.
The world's rarest bird is Spix's macaw, a beautiful bird with a dark blue head, a blue body, and a greenish belly with a black mask and bright yellow eye. It has always been rare, limited to palm groves and river edges in small area near the center of Brazil, but recent deforestation, importation of Africanized bees-which took their tree hollows, and over-collection for the hobbyists caused this species' demise. Conservationists are now working to restore a wild population using captive animals.