Buff-browed Chachalaca
Ortalis superciliaris
Small chachalaca, brown overall with a pale buff eyebrow. Found in edge habitats, thickets, and young second-growth forests, even at the edge of urban areas. Song is typical of a chachalaca: a noisy, high-pitched, raucous “TJURRE-wruh,” repeated continually.
Identification
The buff-browed chachalaca is the smallest member of genus Ortalis. It is 42 to 46 cm (1.4 to 1.5 ft) long. Its crown, neck, and upper breast are gray and the rest of its upperparts brown. Its lower breast and belly are tan. The central tail feathers are dark green-brown with chestnut tips; the outer ones are chestnut. Unique among Ortalis, it has a prominent supercilium that can be any color from buffy white to pale cinnamon. Its facial skin is dark slate gray.
Taxonomy
What is now the buff-browed chachalaca was previously a subspecies of what was then called variable chachalaca (Ortalis motmot). (Confusingly, after the split the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) renamed O. motmot "little chachalaca" but the American Ornithological Society (AOS) and the Clements taxonomy retained the name "variable" for it.) It is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Ortalis superciliaris
- Authority
- Gray, GR, 1867
- Order
- Galliformes
- Family
- Cracidae
- Genus
- Ortalis
Range and habitat
The buff-browed chachalaca is found in northeastern Brazil south of the Amazon River in parts of the states of Pará, Maranhão, Ceará, Tocantins, and Piauí. It is a bird of the lowlands, inhabiting scrublands and forest thickets including those in heavily degraded areas.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
No formal study of the buff-browed chachalaca's diet has been published, but it has been observed eating palm fruits and some flowers.<p>A study of the buff-browed chachalaca's breeding phenology in Pará found a nesting season between December and February, but active nests have been found in other months as well. One described nest was a flat structure of twigs with leaves and grasses. Nests have been found in a tree fork, on top of tall grass, and in dense bushes. The typical clutch size is two or three eggs.<p>The buff-browed chachalaca's vocalizations are "typical of Ortalis"; they are higher pitched and less raucous than those of chestnut-headed chachalaca (O. ruficeps).
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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