Cuban Red Macaw (Forgotten Friends Series A by Yowie)

With their gorgeous plumage and startling intelligence, parrots are some of the most incredible birds alive today. While varied, they were once more so. One such place that did, and still does, have an array of parrots is Cuba, home to the species in this review: the Cuban Red Macaw. One of the smallest macaw species, it was brightly coloured and lived on Cuba (unsurprisingly) and the nearby Isla de la Juventud. The exact cause for their extinction is unknown, but likely hunting, being taken as pets and extermination for being considered pests meant the species was gone by 1864. Here, we see Yowie attempt to immortalise this poor parrot in plastic. Let’s see how they did!

To the figure! It’s suitably colourful, with reds, browns and blues matching specimens of the species. There is a little movement to break up the perched parrot pose (ok, last alliteration on this review, I swear!), but it doesn’t do much, little wiggle to the head and legs and better movement on the tail feathers. As a Yowie figure, it’s relatively small, measuring 1.4″ high and 3″ long. As the Cuban red macaw was only about 20″ long, it may be a little big to scale with lines, but not terrible.

Accuracy is good, as it is a parrot, hard to get wrong. The main issues are from it being simplified. The feet are a tad large, the colours not as varied as could be and then there’s the beak. It’s oversized, likely to be less pointy and cause damage to children. It does seem common in their parrots (see my Kea review for more). Otherwise, not bad.

This is a nice little model, representing a truly overlooked species. As the only representation of the species, you could certainly do worse. It is long discontinued, so eBay is your best shot, and I do think it is worth considering at the very least.