Friday, April 14, 2017

Great Curassow


This is a female Great Curassow (Crax rubra). We spotted this unusual bird in the Arenal Volcano National Park in Costa Rica. It took me a while to find an identification for this bird. The Arenal Volcano National Park is a wonderful place for birdwatching but in our case, we would've had to of spent a lot more time there. There is a Wikipedia entry for the Great Curassow:
The great curassow (Crax rubra) (Spanish: hocofaisán, pavón norteño) is a large, pheasant-like bird from the Neotropical rainforests, its range extending from eastern Mexico, through Central America to western Colombia and northwestern Ecuador. Male birds are black with curly crests and yellow beaks; females come in three colour morphs, barred, rufous and black. These birds form small groups, foraging mainly on the ground for fruits and arthropods, and the occasional small vertebrate, but they roost and nest in trees. This species is monogamous, the male usually building the rather small nest of leaves in which two eggs are laid. This species is threatened by loss of habitat and hunting, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as "vulnerable".
This is likely one of the more unusual birds I have seen the wild.

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