Blue-throated piping guan
| Blue-throated piping guan | |
|---|---|
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Galliformes |
| Family: | Cracidae |
| Genus: | Pipile |
| Species: | P. cumanensis |
| Binomial name | |
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Pipile cumanensis (Jacquin, 1784) |
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| Subspecies | |
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2 sspp., see text |
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| Synonyms | |
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2 sspp., see text
The blue-throated piping guan (Pipile cumanensis) is a South American bird of the family Cracidae that is somewhat similar in appearance to the turkey.
There are two subspecies—P. c. cumanensis and P. c. grayi. P. c. cumanensis (Jacquin, 1784) is found from the Guyanas, the Orinoco river in Venezuela, and southeastern Colombia south to northwestern (Amazonian) Brazil and southeastern Peru. There and possibly in northern Bolivia it intergrades with the bigger P. c. grayi (Pelzeln, 1870) (Gray's piping guan), which continues through northern and central Bolivia, Mato Grosso (state of Brazil), and northern and eastern Paraguay. This species occurs locally in forests: in Colombia and Venezuela, humid lowland forests (occasionally as high as 1000 m) whether seasonally flooded or not, and riparian forests. It especially favors the edges where the forest meets open land or a river.
The blue-throated piping guan is described as "oddly 'prehistoric' (reptilian)" but "handsome". It averages 69 cm (27 in) long, including its neck and tail, both long, the neck and head disproportionately thin and small, the tail disproportionately big. Most of the plumage is black with a greenish gloss—blue-green in cumanensis, olive in grayi. It has a large white patch on each wing, white flecks on the wing coverts and chest, a white patch over the eye, and a white or buffy-white nape (and upper neck in grayi). Both subspecies have a short white or buffy-white crest; in cumanensis it is shaggy and nearly solid-colored; in grayi it is hairier, and the feather shafts are black, appearing as streaks. The bill is baby-blue at the base and cobalt-blue at the tip. Both subspecies have blue bare flesh on the throat with a wattle in cumanensis and a hanging caruncle in grayi. The legs are red.
During the breeding season it is noisy. At dawn it gives a "piping" call of 6 or so slow high-pitched, clear whistles, "slightly ascending in pitch, püüeee, püüeee, püüeee,…", reminiscent of the scale-backed antbird. Its flight display, at dawn or in the daytime, includes "2 quick wing-claps (often barely audible), then 2 whirring rattles with wings," the second seeming to reverse the first as in shuffling cards (Colombia and Venezuela). At other seasons it is usually silent.
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Wikipedia