The scaled chachalaca (''Ortalis squamata'') 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. 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 ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The scaled chachalaca was previously considered a subspecies of the

speckled chachalaca The speckled chachalaca (''Ortalis guttata'') is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. ...

(''Ortalis guttata''). Before that it was treated as a subspecies of plain chachalaca (''O. vetula'') or what was then called variable chachalaca ('' O. motmot''). The ''remota'' subspecies of speckled chachalaca has been proposed as actually belonging to the scaled chachalaca but that treatment has not been accepted.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, 2021Kirwan, G. M., J. del Hoyo, N. Collar, and D. A. Christie (2020). Scaled Chachalaca (''Ortalis squamata''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.specha4.01 retrieved September 30, 2021 As currently understood, the scaled chachalaca 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 ...

Description

The scaled chachalaca is about long. One male weighed about and a female . Its plumage is mostly shades of brown, darker on the upperside. The breast is also dark brown with pale feather edges that give a scalloped or scaly effect. The belly is buffy and the vent chestnut. It has a small pinkish throat patch. The bare skin around the dark eye is slate gray.

Distribution and habitat

The scaled chachalaca is endemic to southeastern Brazil from southern

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

through Paraná and Santa Catarina into

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

. It might also have occurred in southeastern Paraguay through the late 1800s. It inhabits the edges of tropical

evergreen forest An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, Live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zone ...

and the interior and edges of ''

restinga Restingas () are a distinct type of coastal tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest in eastern Brazil. They form on sandy, acidic, and nutrient-poor soils, and are characterized by medium-sized trees and shrubs adapted to the drier and nut ...

'' and ''

Laguncularia racemosa ''Laguncularia racemosa'', the white mangrove, is a species of flowering plant in the leadwood tree family, Combretaceae. It is native to the coasts of western Africa from Senegal to Cameroon, the Atlantic Coast of the Americas from Bermuda and ...

''-dominated mangrove stands. In elevation it ranges from sea level to .

Behavior

Feeding

The scaled chachalaca is usually seen in small family groups. Its diet is mostly fruits and leaves but it also visits feeding stations with bananas and suburban gardens.

Breeding

The scaled chachalaca's breeding season appears to span from October to February or March based on the dates of sightings of adults in breeding condition, eggs, and young. Its nest is a shallow bowl of twigs and leaves, typically placed in a concealed fork of a tree up to about above ground. The clutch size is three eggs.

Vocalization

The scaled chachalaca's song is "a raucous, very noisy but highly variable 'racket', given in duet or chorus from multiple individuals, ''cacataPOOP, cacataPOP, cacataWHUMP, cacataWEEcata'' on nepitch." It also makes "an irregular but sometimes rhythmic cackling or throaty bubbling, ''cuhcuh-cuhCAHcuhcuhcucCAH cuhcuhcuhcuh...''."

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 scaled chachalaca as being of Least Concern. Though its population has not been quantified, it is at least locally common in several parts of its range. It does face hunting pressure and loss of habitat from deforestation.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3356705 scaled chachalaca Birds of the Atlantic Forest Birds of Brazil scaled chachalaca Taxa named by René Lesson