November

If a macaw pair has not taken possession of a suitable nest by November, it will probably not breed in that season. Although attacks on chicks in already occupied nests, by pairs looking for a suitable nest have been reported.
After approximately 26 days of incubation, usually at the end of November or the beginning of December, the first chick hatches. The second, third or even fourth chick all hatch within the next days with intervals of a few days between each other. The first chick has the best chances of survival, whereas the second chick doesn´t always reach the fledging age. The younger and smaller chicks have a slight chance to survive. The advantage of being born earlier is mainly size and thus taking away pretty much of the food brought by the rearing parents. Although the researcher team at the Tambopata Research Center is active year round generating data for the Macaw Project, it is from October-November onwards that the amount of researches increases considerably. This is the time of the year when they start monitoring the nests, both natural, as well as artificial, in the area around TRC.
The researchers climb up the trees to where the nests are, using a very simple but physically challenging technique called tree climbing. They use harnesses and ascenders to reach the chicks inside the nests and bring them down to the ground in buckets to measure and register the size of their beaks, wing length, tarsus length, check if the crops are full or empty, as well as the growth of their first feathers! These appear approximately one month after hatching.
Recently they have put a small camera inside some of the nests to monitor their behavior inside the nest, watching everything on a small screen on the ground.