Great Tinamou

Identification

The great tinamou is a large species of tinamou, measuring in total length at approximately 38 to 46 cm (15 to 18 in), with a mean of 44 cm (17 in), and weighing from 700 to 1,142 g (1.543 to 2.518 lb) in males, with a mean of 960 g (2.12 lb), and from 945 to 1,249 g (2.083 to 2.754 lb) in females, with a mean of 1,097 g (2.418 lb). Despite its name and large size and shape, which may be suggestive of a large pheasant or a small turkey, it is not necessarily the largest species of tinamou, as it is rivaled or exceeded by other species in the Tinamus. It ranges from light to dark olive-green in color with a whitish throat and belly, flanks barred black, and undertail cinnamon. Crown and neck rufous, occipital crest and supercilium blackish. Its legs are blue-grey in color. All these features enable great tinamou to be well-camouflaged in the rainforest understory.<p>The great tinamou has a distinctive call, three short, tremulous but powerful piping notes which can be heard in its rainforest habitat in the early evenings.<p>The great tinamous has the highest percentage of skeletal muscle devoted to locomotion among all birds, with 56.9% of its total body weight (43.74% of its body weight is skeletal muscle devoted to flight), at the same time, its heart is the smallest of all birds, in relative comparison (0.19%).

Taxonomy

The great tinamou was described and illustrated in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. Marcgrave used the name Macucagua. The French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon described and illustrated the great tinamou in 1778 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from specimens collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. He simplified Marcgrave's name to Magoua. When in 1788 the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae, he included the great tinamou and placed it with all the grouse like birds in the genus Tetrao. He coined the binomial name Tetrao major and cited the earlier authors. The great tinamou is now placed with four other species in the genus Tinamus that was introduced in 1783 by the French naturalist Johann Hermann. Hermann based his name on "Les Tinamous" used by Buffon. The word "Tinamú" in the Carib language of French Guiana was used for the tinamous.<p>All tinamous are from the family Tinamidae, and are the closest living relatives of the ratites. Unlike ratites, tinamous can fly, although in general, they are not strong fliers. All ratites evolved from prehistoric flying birds.<p>Twelve subspecies are recognised:

Scientific name

Tinamus major

Authority

(Gmelin, JF, 1789)

Order

Tinamiformes

Family

Tinamidae

Genus

Tinamus

Range and habitat

Great tinamou lives in subtropical and tropical forest such as rainforest, lowland evergreen forest, river-edge forest, swamp forest and cloud forest at altitudes from 300 to 1,500 m (1,000–4,900 ft). Unlike some other tinamous, the great tinamou isn't as affected by forest fragmentation. Its nest can be found at the base of a tree.

Migration

Resident species

Conservation

This species is widespread throughout its large range (6,600,000 km2 (2,500,000 sq mi)), and it is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. They are hunted with no major effect on their population.

Population trend

declining