| Blue-billed curassow | |
|---|---|
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| Male | |
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| Female | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Galliformes |
| Family: | Cracidae |
| Genus: | Crax |
| Species: | C. alberti |
| Binomial name | |
| Crax alberti Fraser, 1852 | |
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| Distribution of the blue-billed curassow | |
The blue-billed curassow (Crax alberti) is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is endemic to Colombia. [2]
The blue-billed curassow is monotypic. [2] However, it formerly included what is now the yellow-knobbed curassow (Crax daubentoni) as a subspecies. The holotype of putative species C. annulata has been determined to be a female blue-billed curassow. [3] [4]
The blue-billed curassow is 82.5 to 92.5 cm (2.7 to 3.0 ft) long and weighs 3.2 to 3.6 kg (7.1 to 7.9 lb). [4] [5] It is the only curassow with a blue cere and wattle, the latter found only on the male. Males are mostly black with a white vent and tail tip. Females are also mostly black but their lower belly and vent are rufous. They have fine white barring on the wings and tail, and a rare "barred" morph also has barring on the breast and belly. Both sexes have an erectile crest, the male's black and the female's black and white. [4]
The blue-billed curassow is found only in northern Colombia. Its range used to stretch 106,700-square-kilometers; it now has a highly fragmented range, with small populations between La Guajira and Magdalena Departments south to Antioquia and Boyacá Departments with 2,090-square-kilometers. [4] [6] It inhabits undisturbed forest in the tropical and upper tropical zones, mostly from near sea level to 600 m (2,000 ft) but at least formerly as high as 1,200 m (3,900 ft). [4] The Serranía de las Quinchas area in the Magdalena Valley is home to the last viable population of blue-billed curassows. [7]
The blue-billed curassow mainly feeds on the ground. Its diet has not been extensively studied but it is known to include fruits, worms, and insects. It also takes in sand and small stones as digestive aids. [4]
Blue-billed curassows reach sexual maturity at three years of age. [8] The blue-billed curassow's breeding season spans from mid-December to early March. [8] It is reported to be monogamous. It builds a large nest of sticks and dead leaves and conceals it in dense vine tangles. It typically places it between the understory and the subcanopy. The clutch size is two to three eggs. [4] [8] Eggs are incubated for 32 days before hatching full-feathered. [8]
Male blue-billed curassows "boom" from the ground, "a 4–5-syllable series of deep notes...repeated over and over, 'hmm...hmh...hmm...hmm...hmh'". Both sexes give an alarm call, a "soft, high-pitched whistle 'peh-weeeéoh' or 'pehoo'". [4]
The IUCN has assessed the blue-billed curassow as Critically Endangered. Its population is estimated to be fewer than 1,500 mature individuals and its population is fragmented and decreasing. Deforestation and hunting are the major threats. [1] The ProAves El Paujil Bird Reserve in Santander Department was created in 2003 especially to protect one population. [9] Captive breeding has been successful. [4]
One of the threats facing blue-billed curassows is habitat loss/fragmentation. Habitat loss occurs from widespread use of herbicides by the Colombian government. [8] Forests have also been cleared for agriculture, livestock, oil extraction, and mining. [7] Around 98% to 99% of blue-billed curassow habitat has been lost. [6]
Hunting is the most immediate threat to the species. [10] Studied populations are not estimated to survive another 100 years as hunting has the greatest impact on the expected extinction date. [10]
In 1991, the International Council for Bird Preservation petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to add the blue-billed curassow to the Endangered Species Act. [6] The species was listed as endangered under the act in 2013. [6]
Blue-billed curassows are currently listed as an Alliance for Zero Extinction species. [11]
Without intervention, populations of blue-billed curassows are not viable for a 100-year period. [10] The most immediate conservation strategies recommended are to eliminate or significantly reduce hunting. [10] Agreements have already been signed with property owners in San Bartolo, La Ganadera, and Rancho Verde ranches to guarantee forest protection and no hunting within their boundaries. [10] This method, combined with captive-bred individuals will help population viability. [10]
The chachalacas, guans, and curassows are birds in the family Cracidae. These are species of tropical and subtropical Central and South America. The range of one species, the plain chachalaca, just reaches southernmost parts of Texas in the United States. Two species, the Trinidad piping guan and the rufous-vented chachalaca occur on the islands of Trinidad and Tobago respectively.
Crax is a genus of curassows in the order Galliformes, a clade of large, heavy-bodied, ground-feeding birds. They are known from tropical South America with one species, the great curassow, ranging northwards through Central America as far as Mexico. The curassows in this genus are noted for their sexual dimorphism; males are more boldly coloured than females and have facial ornamentation such as knobs and wattles. They are also characterised by curly crests and contrastingly-coloured crissa. Crax curassows probably originated as a distinct lineage during the Late Miocene. During the Messinian, the ancestral Crax split into two lineages separated by the Colombian Andes and the Cordillera de Mérida which uplifted at that time. The northern lineage radiated into the great, blue-billed, and yellow-knobbed curassows, while the four southern species evolved as they became separated by the uplifting of various mountain ranges.
The great curassow is a large, pheasant-like bird from the Neotropical rainforests, its range extending from eastern Mexico, through Central America to western Colombia and northwestern Ecuador. Male birds are black with curly crests and yellow beaks; females come in three colour morphs, barred, rufous and black. These birds form small groups, foraging mainly on the ground for fruits and arthropods, and the occasional small vertebrate, but they roost and nest in trees. This species is monogamous, the male usually building the rather small nest of leaves in which two eggs are laid. This species is threatened by loss of habitat and hunting, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as "vulnerable".
The Alagoas curassow is a glossy-black, pheasant-like bird. It was formerly found in forests in Northeastern Brazil in what is now the states of Pernambuco and Alagoas, which is the origin of its common name. It is now extinct in the wild; there are about 130 individuals in captivity.
The wattled curassow is a threatened member of the family Cracidae, the curassows, guans, and chachalacas. It is found in remote rainforests in the western Amazon basin in South America. Males have black plumage, except for a white crissum, with curly feathers on the head and red bill ornaments and wattles. Females and juveniles are similar but lack the bill ornamentation and have a reddish-buff crissum area. The wattled curassow is the most ancient lineage of the southern Crax curassows. In captivity, it sometimes hybridises with the blue-billed curassow.
The red-billed curassow or red-knobbed curassow is an endangered species of cracid that is endemic to lowland Atlantic Forest in the states of Espírito Santo, Bahia and Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil. Its population is decreasing due to hunting and deforestation, and it has possibly been extirpated from Minas Gerais. It is currently being reintroduced to Rio de Janeiro by means of individuals bred in captivity. As suggested by its common name, the male has a largely red bill, but this is lacking in the female.
The black curassow, also known as the smooth-billed curassow and the crested curassow, is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found in humid forests in northern South America in Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas including Suriname, and far northern Brazil, and is introduced to Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Lesser Antilles. It is the only Crax curassow where the male and female cannot be separated by plumage, as both are essentially black with a white crissum, and have a yellow or orange-red cere.
The yellow-knobbed curassow is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found in Colombia and Venezuela.
The bare-faced curassow is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, curassows, etc. It is found in Brazil, Paraguay, and eastern Bolivia, and extreme northeast Argentina, in the cerrado, pantanal, and the southeastern region of the Amazon basin. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest and subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest.
Salvin's curassow is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
The crestless curassow is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, and Venezuela.
The razor-billed curassow is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Peru.
The nocturnal curassow is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
The horned curassow, or southern helmeted curassow, is a species of bird in the family Cracidae found in humid tropical and subtropical forests. It was first described by James Bond and Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee in 1939 from a specimen collected in Bolivia, and further birds that were described from Peru in 1971 were thought to be a new subspecies. However, the taxonomical position of the birds found in Peru in 1971 is unclear. The horned curassow as originally described is endemic to Bolivia. It is a large, predominantly black bird with a distinctive casque on its forehead. It is an uncommon bird with a limited range and is suffering from habitat loss, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being "critically endangered".
The Colombian chachalaca is a species of bird in the family Cracidae. It is endemic to the forests and woodlands in the inter-Andean valleys in Colombia. Colombian Chachalacas are frugivorous and lead an arboreal lifestyle. The large seeds they disperse through defecation support the maintenance of diverse tropical forests.
The Serranía de las Quinchas is an 860 km2 area of tropical rainforest and cloud forest in Colombia. It lies in the mid Magdalena River Valley in the foothills of the Cordillera Oriental of the Colombian Andes. It ranges in altitude from 200 m (660 ft) to 1,700 m (5,600 ft). It is listed as an Important Bird Area, under criteria A1 and A2, as it holds populations of globally threatened and restricted range species. It contains the 848 ha (3.27 sq mi) El Paujil Nature Reserve, established by the Fundación ProAves in 2004.
The Magdalena Valley dry forests (NT0221) is an ecoregion in Colombia along the upper Magdalena River, a large river that runs from south to north between the two main cordilleras of the Andes. There are many endemic species, but much of the original habitat has been destroyed by agriculture and over-grazing, mainly by goats. The habitat is not protected by any national park, and is at risk of complete destruction.
The Magdalena–Urabá moist forests (NT0137) is an ecoregion in the north of Colombia. The terrain is largely flat or undulating, but includes mountainous areas in the south. It contains moist forests and large wetlands that are important to resident and migratory birds. The ecoregion forms a bridge between the Pacific coast ecoregions of Colombia and Central America, and the ecoregions of the Andes and Amazon. It is surrounded by the more populated parts of Colombia and is threatened by farming, ranching, logging, oil exploitation and water pollution in the main rivers.
The Magdalena Valley montane forests (NT0136) is an ecoregion in the Andes mountains of central Colombia.
The Santa Marta montane forests (NT0159) is an ecoregion in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, a massif on the Caribbean coast of northern Colombia. The ecoregion covers altitudes from near sea level up to around 3,300 metres (10,827 ft), where it gives way to Santa Marta páramo. The isolation of the massif and the range of elevations and climates has resulted in a wide variety of species including many endemics. The lower levels contained tropical rainforest, which has largely been cleared. Higher up, this gives way to cloud forest. Much of this has also been cleared for coffee plantations, pasture for sheep and cattle, and farming.
