The tepui tinamou (''Crypturellus ptaritepui'') is a type of ground bird found in

montane Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

moist forest on

tepui A tepui , or tepuy (), is a table-top mountain or mesa found in South America, especially in Venezuela and western Guyana. The word tepui means "house of the gods" in the native tongue of the Pemon, the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran S ...

s, in southeastern

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

.Clements, J (2007)

Taxonomy

This is a monotypic species.Clements, J (2007) 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)

Etymology

''Crypturellus'' is formed from two

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 ...

roots: (''kruptos'') meaning ‘covered’ or ‘hidden’ and (''oura'') meaning ‘tail’; the

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 ...

suffix ''-ellus'' is diminutive. Thus, ''Crypturellus'' means ‘little hidden tail’.Gotch, A. F. (1195)

Description

The tepui tinamou is approximately in length. The top of its head and rear of neck are rufous brown, darker on its back, and dusky below with rufous sheen on its upper breast. The sides of its head and throat are grey in color, its upper

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

is black, its lower mandible yellow with black tip, and its legs are olive in color.

Behavior

Like other tinamous, the tepui eats fruit off the ground or low-lying bushes. They also eat small amounts of

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordat ...

, flower buds, tender leaves, seeds, and roots. The male incubates the eggs which may come from as many as 4 different females, and then will raise them until they are ready to be on their own, usually 2–3 weeks. The nest is located on the ground in dense brush or between raised root buttresses.

Range and habitat

The tepui tinamou has been found on Ptari-tepuí, Auyán-tepuí, Chimantá-tepuí, and Sororopán-tepuí, in southeastern Bolívar,

. It was found in between in elevation, and its preferred habitat is tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

or tropical moist shrubland.BirdLife International (2008)

Conservation

The IUCN classifies it 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 . It is a protected species in

Footnotes

References

* * * * * Crypturellus Tinamous of South America Birds of Venezuela Birds described in 1945 Taxa named by John T. Zimmer Birds of the Tepuis {{Tinamiformes-stub