Spix Macaw      The Spix's macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii) is the most endangered parrot in the world. The predictable extinction in the wild of this species is a special loss as it regards a monotypic species and genus. As with most other species of parrots, we have only little, if any, idea about the historical distribution and abundance of Cyanopsitta spixii; however, the species probably never was very common in its apparently restricted range in northeastern Brazil (Ridgely l982). Today, all independent reports concur that the total wild population numbers less than ten individuals and that, most probably, only three or four individuals remain in the will       Few other successes appear to mark the attempted recovery of Cyanopsitta spixii. We are about to lose a species and a genus from the neotropical fauna and we seem not to be able to decide what to do about it. At this point, the only future for the species is through captive breeding, but we are facing one major problem which is the fact that most of the birds held in captivity are held by private aviculturists. About half of the birds we have been able to locate in captivity are held outside Brazil, in countries such as F.R. Germany, France, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, Spain and the United Kingdom. ICBP and the Parrot Specialists Group have put great efforts into organizing these keepers of Cyanopsitta spixii in a "breeding consortium", but without much luck. In August last year, these people were approached with an invitation to attend a meeting at Loro Parque, Tenerife, to draw up guidelines for an ex situ breeding operation involving their birds. Except for Loro Parque, which is in possession of two Cyanopsitta spixii, none of the owners presently known outside Brazil accepted the invitation.