The brushland tinamou (''Nothoprocta cinerascens'') is a type of

tinamou Tinamous () form an order of birds called Tinamiformes (), comprising a single family called Tinamidae (), divided into two distinct subfamilies, containing 46 species found in Mexico, Central America, and South America. The word "tinamou" come ...

commonly found in high-altitude dry shrubland in subtropical and tropical regions of southern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sout ...

.Clements, J. (2007)

Etymology

''Crypturellus'' is formed from three

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

words. ''kruptos'' meaning covered or hidden, ''oura'' meaning tail, and ''ellus'' meaning diminutive. Therefore, ''Crypturellus'' means small hidden tail.

Taxonomy

All tinamou are from the family Tinamidae, and in the larger scheme are also ratites. Unlike other ratites, tinamous can fly, although in general, they are not strong fliers. All ratites evolved from prehistoric flying birds, and tinamous are the closest living relative of these birds.Davies, S. J. J. F. (2003)

Hermann Burmeister Karl Hermann Konrad Burmeister (also known as Carlos Germán Conrado Burmeister) (15 January 1807 – 2 May 1892) was a German Argentine zoologist, entomologist, herpetologist, botanist, and coleopterologist. He served as a professor at the Uni ...

first identified the brushland tinamou from a specimen from

Tucumán Province Tucumán () is the most densely populated, and the second-smallest by land area, of the provinces of Argentina. Located in the northwest of the country, the province has the capital of San Miguel de Tucumán, often shortened to Tucumán. Neigh ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, in 1860. A phylogenetic study published in 2022 found that the brushland tinamou was more closely related to species placed in the genus '' Rhynchotus'' than it was to the other members of the genus ''Nothoprocta''.

Subspecies

The brushland tinamou has two subspecies as follows: * ''N. c. cinerascens'', the nominate race, occurs in southeastern Bolivia, northwestern

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

, and central

. * ''N. c. parvimaculata'' occurs in northwestern

in eastern

La Rioja La Rioja () is an autonomous community and province in Spain, in the north of the Iberian Peninsula. Its capital is Logroño. Other cities and towns in the province include Calahorra, Arnedo, Alfaro, Haro, Santo Domingo de la Calzada, an ...

Province

Description

The brushland tinamou is approximately in length and weighs . Its upper parts are grey to olive-brown barred with black and prominently streaked with white. Its crown is black, the sides of its head and its throat are white, its lower throat is barred black, its breast is grey spotted with white, and its belly is whitish. Its legs are dark grey. The female is larger and darker.

Range

This species is native to southeastern Bolivia, northwestern

and northwestern and central

Habitat

The brushland tinamou prefers to live in dry shrubland up to in altitude. But it can regularly be found as high as , and also in dry

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland- grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

, dry grassland, or grassland that is seasonally flooded, and also pastureland and farmland.

Behavior

The call of the brushland tinamou is a series of seven to ten clear whistled notes that carry, and will be hard as they defend their range of about . They feed off of insects and small animals and some fruit.

Reproduction

Males attract two to four females and supervise their laying of eggs in the nest, which is typically hidden in brush. Females will leave to find other males and the male will incubate the eggs and raise the chicks.

Conservation

The brushland tinamou is classified by the IUCN as

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

, with an occurrence range of .BirdLife International (2008)

Footnotes

References

* * * * *

External links

Image at ADW
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1262031 brushland tinamou brushland tinamou Birds of the Gran Chaco Birds of Argentina brushland tinamou