The sickle-winged guan (''Chamaepetes goudotii'') 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 chachalaca, guan, and curassow 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 ...

. It is found in

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

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 ...

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

, and

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

.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. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved August 24, 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

The sickle-winged guan shares the genus ''Chamaepetes'' with the

black guan The black guan (''Chamaepetes unicolor'') is a species of bird in the chachalaca, guan, and curassow family Cracidae. It is found in Costa Rica and Panama. Taxonomy and systematics The black guan shares the genus ''Chamaepetes'' with the si ...

(''C. unicolor'') of southern Central America and may form a superspecies with it.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, 2021 It has the five subspecies listed in the box to the right.

Description

The sickle-winged guan is long and weighs . The subspecies differ in size; ''C. g. tschudii'' and ''C. g. rufiventris'' are the largest. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a brown head and neck, dark upperparts, bright chestnut belly, pale blue facial skin, and red eyes. Juveniles are similar but duller. ''C. g. sanctaemarthae''s upper breast, throat, and cheeks are redder than the nominate's and its vent area a darker red. ''C. g. fagani''s head and upperparts are much darker than those of the nominate and ''sanctaemarthae'' and its underparts are chestnut. ''C. g. tschudii'' is similar to ''fagani'' but has more olive-brown upperparts and the chestnut of the underparts is lighter. ''C. g. rufiventris'' has gray edges on its neck feathers that give a scaly appearance; it is also a paler olive above and less chestnut on the underparts than ''tschudii''.del Hoyo, J. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Sickle-winged Guan (''Chamaepetes goudotii''), 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.siwgua1.01 retrieved September 25, 2021

Distribution and habitat

The subspecies of sickle-winged guan are distributed thus: * ''C. g. goudotii'', western and central Andes of Colombia south to Nariño Department * ''C. g. sanctaemarthae'',

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (English: ''Snow-Covered Mountain Range of Saint Martha'') is an isolated mountain range in northern Colombia, separate from the Andes range that runs through the north of the country. Reaching an elevation of ...

of northeastern Colombia * ''C. g. fagani'', west slope of the Andes from Colombia's Nariño Department south to Ecuador's

El Oro Province El Oro (; ''oro'' = gold) is the southernmost of Ecuador's coastal provinces. It was named for its historically important gold production. Today it is one of the world's major exporters of bananas. The capital is Machala. History The area was ...

* ''C. g. tschudii'', east slope of the Andes from southern Colombia through Ecuador to Peru's

Department of San Martín San Martín () is a department and region in northern Peru. Most of the department is located in the upper part of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. Its capital is Moyobamba and the largest city in the department is Tarapoto. Geography Boundar ...

* ''C. g. rufiventris'', east slope of the Andes from central to southern Peru and isolated areas in north and central Bolivia The sickle-winged guan inhabits humid and wet forest, preferring tall forest but also found at edges and in

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...

. The sickle-winged guan is generally a bird of middle elevations. It reaches as high as in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta but elsewhere in Colombia is mostly between . In Peru it is typically found between . Its Bolivian populations are at the highest elevations, .

Behavior

Feeding

The sickle-winged guan primarily forages in fruiting trees, often as high as above ground. Pairs forage together or as part of groups of up to eight birds, usually around dawn and dusk. It mostly feeds on small fruits but also adds flowers, leaves, and invertebrates for as much as 15% of its diet. In some areas it frequents feeding stations to eat bananas.

Breeding

The sickle-winged guan's breeding season in the Colombian Andes spans from January to June and may extend beyond that in other areas. The nest is a platform of thin branches, moss, and green and dead vegetation, usually placed in a tree fork or on a

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

. The clutch size is two or three eggs.

Vocal and non-vocal sounds

The ''fagini'' subspecies of sickle-winged guan gives an " extremely thin, high-pitched...whistle" and a "''keeeeeee-uk!''" alarm call. Its wing-whirring display is usually given at dawn and dusk as it flies back and forth between two trees.

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 sickle-winged guan as being of Least Concern. It is considered to be fairly common to common except in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the small Bolivan enclaves. It appears to tolerate some habitat alteration and, at least away from villages, to not have much hunting pressure.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1078580 sickle-winged guan sickle-winged guan Birds of the Northern Andes sickle-winged guan Taxa named by René Lesson Taxonomy articles created by Polbot