Beside our guest suites, there stands a very large mandovi tree. Mandovi trees are extremely important in the Pantanal, as they are used by macaws for nesting. This mandovi tree beside our suites has a 25cm high hole on its trunk...

Over the years, we have watched numerous red and green macaw (Ara chloropterus) couples come to check out the suitability of this tree hole for nesting. Frustratingly however, none of these couples have ever decided to stay there. That is until this year when, much to our delight, a pair of red and green macaws decided to make the tree their home...

The hole was at first a little small for these macaws, so they worked at making it bigger by picking at it with their very large and powerful beaks...

Occasionally, another pair of red and green macaws arrives and challenges the resident macaws in an attempt to steal the hole away from them. But so far, this mating couple has managed to fend off these adversaries.