The blue-billed curassow (''Crax alberti'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

in the family

Cracidae 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 Unite ...

, the

chachalaca Chachalacas are galliform birds from the genus ''Ortalis''. These birds are found in wooded habitats in the far southern United States (Texas), Mexico, and Central and South America. They are social, can be very noisy and often remain fairly c ...

guan Guan may refer to: * Guan (surname), several similar Chinese surnames ** Guān, Chinese surname * Guan (state), ancient Chinese city-state * Guan (bird), any of a number of bird species of the family Cracidae, of South and Central America * Guan ( ...

s, and

curassow Curassows are one of the three major groups of cracid birds. They comprise the largest-bodied species of the cracid family. Three of the four genera are restricted to tropical South America; a single species of ''Crax'' ranges north to Mexico. ...

s. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The blue-billed curassow is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

. However, it formerly included what is now the

yellow-knobbed curassow The yellow-knobbed curassow (''Crax daubentoni'') is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found in Colombia and Venezuela. Taxonomy and systematics The yellow-knobbed curassow was formerly c ...

(''Crax daubentoni'') as a subspecies. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

of putative species ''C. annulata'' has been determined to be a female blue-billed curassow.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 August 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved August 24, 2021del Hoyo, J. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Blue-billed Curassow (''Crax alberti''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bubcur1.01 retrieved October 1, 2021

Description

The blue-billed curassow is long and weighs . It is the only curassow with a blue

cere The beak, bill, or rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for eating, preening, manipulating objects, killing prey, fighting, probing for food, ...

and

wattle Wattle or wattles may refer to: Plants *''Acacia sensu lato'', polyphyletic genus of plants commonly known as wattle, especially in Australia and South Africa **''Acacia'', large genus of shrubs and trees, native to Australasia **Black wattle, c ...

, 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.

Distribution and habitat

The blue-billed curassow is found only in northern Colombia. It has a highly fragmented range, with small populations between

La Guajira La Guajira () is a department of Colombia. It occupies most of the Guajira Peninsula in the northeast region of the country, on the Caribbean Sea and bordering Venezuela, at the northernmost tip of South America. The capital city of the departm ...

and Magdalena Departments south to Antioquia and

Boyacá Department Boyacá () is one of the thirty-two departments of Colombia, and the remnant of Boyacá State, one of the original nine states of the "United States of Colombia". Boyacá is centrally located within Colombia, almost entirely within the moun ...

s. It inhabits undisturbed forest in the tropical and upper tropical zones, mostly from near sea level to but at least formerly as high as .

Behavior

Feeding

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.

Breeding

The blue-billed curassow's breeding season spans from December to at least April. 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 eggs.

Vocalization

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'".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

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. The ProAves El Paujil Bird Reserve in Santander Department was created in 2003 especially to protect one population. Captive breeding has been successful.

References

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet.
(for

) with RangeMap
Blue-billed Curassow photo gallery
VIREO

oiseaux {{Taxonbar, from=Q1043334

blue-billed curassow The blue-billed curassow (''Crax alberti'') is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, Guan (bird), guans, and curassows. It is endemic to Colombia. Taxonomy and systematics The blue-billed curassow is monotypic. However, i ...

Endemic birds of Colombia

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot