Curassows - Wattled Curassow, Crax, Northern Helmeted Curassow, Mitu (Paperback)

Chapters: Wattled Curassow, Crax, Northern Helmeted Curassow, Mitu. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 27. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Crax carunculataCrax yarrellii The Wattled Curassow (Crax globulosa) is a threatened member of the family Cracidae, the curassows, guans, and chachalacas. It is found in remote rainforests in the western Amazon Basin in South America. Head and neck of an adult maleThe Wattled Curassow is about 8289 cm (3235 in) long, and weighs around 2,500 g (88 oz). It is a large curassow lacking the white tail-tips found in many of these birds; the feathers along the crest of its head are curled forwards. Males have black plumage all over except for the white crissum (area between legs and tail). The irides ar dark brown; legs, feet and bill are blackish. It has conspicuous crimson bill ornamentsa round red knob with bony core adorns the maxilla base, while the cere extends apically at least halfway under this knob and below the mandible base forms a small fleshy wattle. Females have black plumage just like the male, but their crissal area is reddish buff. In some, the remiges and sometimes the wing coverts have faint brownish marbling. Their bills and irides are also blackish, but their feet and legs are a greyish flesh color. They lack the bill knob and wattles, and their cere is bright orange-red. Young males have less well-developed facial ornaments, usually with a more yellowish hue like females do. The hatchlings are covered in brown down above and whitish down below. Adults look very much like those of he Red-billed Curassow (C. blumenbachii), whose males have only an indistinct maxilla knob. Its females have a blackish cere, rather pale legs and feet, and their wingsparticularly the remigesusually have distinct chestnut brown marbling. The Black Curas...More: http: //booksllc.net/?id=746347