Blue-throated Piping-Guan

Identificazione

The blue-throated piping guan is described as "oddly 'prehistoric' (reptilian)" but "handsome". It is 60 to 69 cm (24 to 27 in) long and weighs about 970 to 1,350 g (2.14 to 2.98 lb). Its neck and tail are long, the neck and head disproportionately thin and small and the tail disproportionately long. The sexes are alike. Most of their plumage is blackish with a greenish blue gloss that is strongest on the shoulders, wings, and tail. Their forehead, crown, and nape are white, as are the fringes of their breast feathers. The outer wing coverts are also white and show as a large patch on the folded wing; the inner coverts have white spots. White to cobalt blue bare skin surrounds the dark reddish brown eye. Bare skin forming a dewlap can be white to cobalt blue, slaty purple, dark purplish gray, or black. Their bill can be pale blue with a black tip or black with a pinkish and blue base. Their legs are reddish, brownish red, or rose.

Tassonomia

The genus Pipile has been treated as including anywhere from one to five species depending on the criteria used by the various authors and taxonomic systems. At various times from one to four of them have been treated as subspecies of the Trinidad piping guan (P. pipile). By early 2023, major worldwide taxonomic systems had settled on five species including the white-throated piping guan (P. grayi), which had been considered a subspecies of the blue-throated. The blue-throated piping guan is now monotypic according to the worldwide systems. However, the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society retains the white-throated piping guan as a subspecies of the blue-throated.

Nome scientifico

Pipile cumanensis

Autorità

(Jacquin, 1784)

Ordine

Galliformi

Famiglia

Cracidae

Genere

Pipile

Areale e habitat

The blue-throated piping-guan is found in far northwestern Boliva, eastern Peru and eastern Ecuador, central and eastern Colombia, southern and eastern Venezuela, the Guianas, and northwestern Brazil. It inhabits humid tropical forest of the Amazon Basin including terra firme, várzea, gallery, and semi-deciduous types. In the Guianas it is also found in less forested coastal areas. It almost always occurs within about 100 m (330 ft) of rivers. In elevation it reaches 300 m (980 ft) in Bolivia, 400 m (1,300 ft) in Ecuador, 500 m (1,600 ft) in Colombia, 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in Venezuela, and 1,100 m (3,600 ft) in Peru.

Migrazione

Specie stanziale

Comportamento

Comportamento migratorio: Specie stanziale.

Conservazione

Tendenza della popolazione: in diminuzione.

Tendenza della popolazione

in diminuzione