''Psophia'' is a genus of birds restricted to the humid forests of the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

and

Guiana Shield The Guiana Shield (french: Plateau des Guyanes, Bouclier guyanais; nl, Hoogland van Guyana, Guianaschild; pt, Planalto das Guianas, Escudo das Guianas; es, Escudo guayanés) is one of the three cratons of the South American Plate. It is a ...

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 ...

. It is the only genus in the family Psophiidae. Birds in the genus are commonly known as trumpeters, due to the trumpeting or cackling threat call of the males. The three species resemble

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adu ...

s in size; they measure long and weigh . They are rotund birds with long necks and legs and curved bills and a hunched posture. Their heads are small, but their eyes are relatively large, making them look "good-natured". The plumage is soft, resembling fur or velvet on the head and neck. It is mostly black, with purple, green, or bronze iridescence, particularly on the wing coverts and the lower neck. In the best-known

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

the secondary and tertial flight feathers are white, grey, or greenish to black, and hairlike, falling over the lower back, which is the same colour. These colours give the three generally accepted species their names.

Taxonomy and systematics

The

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

''Psophia'' was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

in the tenth edition of his '' Systema Naturae'' to contain a single species, the

grey-winged trumpeter The grey-winged trumpeter (''Psophia crepitans'') is a member of a small family of birds, the Psophiidae. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bona ...

(''Psophia crepitans''). The genus name is from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

''psophos'' meaning "noise". The genus' taxonomy is far from settled; from three to six species, with varying numbers of subspecies, are recognized by different taxonomic systems. The

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...

's treatment is the most conservative. They recognize three species, two of which each have three subspecies: *

Grey-winged trumpeter The grey-winged trumpeter (''Psophia crepitans'') is a member of a small family of birds, the Psophiidae. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bona ...

, ''Psophia crepitans'' ** ''P. c. crepitans'' ** ''P. c. napensis'' ** ''P. c. ochroptera'' *

Pale-winged trumpeter The pale-winged trumpeter (''Psophia leucoptera''), also known as the white-winged trumpeter, is a Near-threatened species, Near Threatened species of bird in the family Psophiidae. It is found in the western Amazon rainforest of Bolivia, Brazi ...

, ''Psophia leucoptera'' * Dark-winged trumpeter, ''Psophia viridis'' ** ''P. v. viridis'' ** ''P. v. dextralis'' ** ''P. v. obscura'' The Clements taxonomy splits ''P. v. dextralis'' and adds English names to the subspecies:Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved November 10, 2022 * Gray-winged trumpeter, ''Psophia crepitans'' ** ''P. c. crepitans'' (gray-winged) ** ''P. c. napensis'' (Napo) ** ''P. c. ochroptera'' (ochre-winged) * Pale-winged trumpeter, ''Psophia leucoptera'' * Dark-winged trumpeter, ''Psophia viridis'' ** ''P. v. viridis'' (green-backed) ** ''P. v. dextralis'' (dusky-backed) ** ''P. v. interjecta'' (Xingu) ** ''P. v. obscura'' (black-backed) BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) recognizes six species:HBW and BirdLife International (2021) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 6. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v6_Dec21.zip retrieved August 7, 2022 * Grey-winged trumpeter, ''Psophia crepitans'' ** ''P. c. crepitans'' ** ''P. c. napensis'' * Ochre-winged trumpeter, ''Psophia ochroptera'' * White-winged trumpeter, ''Psophia leucoptera'' * Green-winged trumpeter, ''Psophia viridis'' * Olive-winged trumpeter, ''Psophia dextralis'' ** ''P. d. dextralis'' ** ''P. d. interjecta'' * Black-winged trumpeter, ''Psophia obscura'' Traditionally only three species of trumpeters have been recognised. In 2008 a review of the

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

of the dark-winged trumpeter resulted in the recommendation of splitting it into three species. In 2010 a review of the

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spe ...

and biogeography of all members of the family resulted in a suggested total of eight species, including two in the grey-winged trumpeter

complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...

, two in the pale-winged trumpeter complex, and four in the dark-winged trumpeter complex.

Behaviour and ecology

Trumpeters fly weakly but run fast; they can easily outrun dogs. They are also capable of swimming across rivers. They spend most of the day in noisy flocks, sometimes numbering more than 100, on the forest floor. They feed on fallen fruit (particularly fruit knocked down by monkeys). They also eat a small amount of arthropods, including ants and flies, and even some reptiles and amphibians. At night they fly with difficulty into trees to roost above the ground. Trumpeters nest in a hole in a tree or in the crown of a

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm ...

. They lay 2 to 5 eggs with rough, white shells, averaging about . In the

pale-winged trumpeter The pale-winged trumpeter (''Psophia leucoptera''), also known as the white-winged trumpeter, is a Near-threatened species, Near Threatened species of bird in the family Psophiidae. It is found in the western Amazon rainforest of Bolivia, Brazi ...

and the

, groups of adults care for a single clutch.

Relationship with humans

Trumpeters are often used as " guard dogs" because they call loudly when alarmed, become tame easily, and are believed to be adept at killing

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

s. One source states their skill at hunting snakes as a fact, and the nineteenth-century botanist Richard Spruce gave an account of the friendliness and snake-killing prowess of a tame

. For these reasons, Spruce recommended that England import trumpeters to India. However, another source says this prowess is "reputed".

References

External links

*
Trumpeter videos
on the Internet Bird Collection {{Taxonbar, from1=Q10809431, from2=Q253499 Higher-level bird taxa restricted to the Neotropics Bird genera