Tataupa tinamou

Tataupa tinamou
In Piraju, São Paulo, Brazil
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Tinamiformes
Family: Tinamidae
Subfamily: Tinaminae
Genus: Crypturellus
Species: C. tataupa
Binomial name
Crypturellus tataupa
(Temminck, 1815)[2]
Sub-species

C. t. tataupa (Temminck, 1815)[2]
C. t. inops (Bangs & Noble), 1918)[2]
C. t. peruvianus (Cory, 1915)[2]
C. t. lepidotus (Swainson, 1837)[2]

The tataupa tinamou (Crypturellus tataupa) is a type of tinamou commonly found in dry forest in subtropical and tropical regions in southeastern South America.[3]

Etymology

Crypturellus is formed from three Latin or Greek words: kruptos meaning covered or hidden, oura meaning tail, and ellus meaning diminutive. Therefore Crypturellus means small hidden tail.[4]

Taxonomy

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.[5]

Subspecies

The Tataupa tinamou has four subspecies as follows:

Description

The tataupa tinamou is approximately 25 cm (9.8 in) in length. Its upper parts are dark brown, with a dark brown crown, a pale grey throat. It has darker grey on the sides of its head, neck, and breast, with a bu belly buff. Its bill and legs are purplish red.

Behavior

Egg, Collection Museum Wiesbaden

Like other tinamous, the tataupa tinamou eats fruit off the ground or low-lying bushes. They also eat small amounts of invertebrates, 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.[5]

Range and habitat

The tataupa tinamou prefers dry forest up to 1,400 m (4,600 ft) altitude. It may also be found in lowland moist forest and degraded former forest habitats.[6] This species is native to northeastern Brazil, eastern Bolivia, northern Argentina, Paraguay and western Peru in South America.[3] It also has been sighted in extreme southern Ecuador.[1]

Conservation

The IUCN classifies this tinamou as Least Concern,[1] with an occurrence range of 4,900,000 km2 (1,900,000 sq mi).[6]

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 BirdLife International (2012). "Crypturellus tataupa". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2013.2. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Retrieved 26 November 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Brands, S. (2008)
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Clements, J (2007)
  4. Gotch, A. F. (1995)
  5. 1 2 Davies, S. J. J. F. (2003)
  6. 1 2 BirdLife International (2008)

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/7/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.