The blue-billed curassow (''Crax alberti'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family

Cracidae The chachalacas, guans, and curassows are birds in the Family (biology), family Cracidae. These are species of tropical and subtropical Central America, Central and South America. The range of one species, the plain chachalaca, just reaches south ...

, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The blue-billed curassow is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unisp ...

. However, it formerly included what is now the yellow-knobbed curassow (''Crax daubentoni'') as a subspecies. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

of putative species ''C. annulata'' has been determined to be a female blue-billed curassow.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 August 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved August 24, 2021del Hoyo, J. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Blue-billed Curassow (''Crax alberti''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.bubcur1.01 retrieved October 1, 2021

Description

The blue-billed curassow is long and weighs . It is the only curassow with a blue

cere The beak, bill, or Rostrum (anatomy), rostrum is an external anatomical structure found mostly in birds, but also in turtles, non-avian dinosaurs and a few mammals. A beak is used for pecking, wikt:grasp#Verb, grasping, and holding (in wikt:probe ...

and wattle, the latter found only on the male. Males are mostly black with a white vent and tail tip. Females are also mostly black but their lower belly and vent are rufous. They have fine white barring on the wings and tail, and a rare "barred" morph also has barring on the breast and belly. Both sexes have an erectile crest, the male's black and the female's black and white.

Distribution and habitat

The blue-billed curassow is found only in northern Colombia. Its range used to stretch 106,700-square-kilometers; it now has a highly fragmented range, with small populations between

La Guajira La Guajira () is a departments of Colombia, department of Colombia. It occupies most of the Guajira Peninsula in the northeast region of the country, on the Caribbean Sea and bordering Venezuela, at the northernmost tip of South America. The ca ...

and

Magdalena Department Magdalena () is a Departments of Colombia, department of Colombia, located in the north of the country by the Caribbean Sea, with more than 1.3 million people. The capital of the Magdalena Department is Santa Marta and was named after the Mag ...

s south to Antioquia and

Boyacá Department Boyacá () is one of the thirty-two departments of Colombia, and the remnant of Boyacá State, one of the original nine states of the "United States of Colombia". Boyacá is centrally located within Colombia, almost entirely within the mount ...

s with 2,090-square-kilometers. It inhabits undisturbed forest in the tropical and upper tropical zones, mostly from near sea level to but at least formerly as high as . The Serranía de las Quinchas area in the Magdalena Valley is home to the last viable population of blue-billed curassows.

Behavior

Feeding

The blue-billed curassow mainly feeds on the ground. Its diet has not been extensively studied but it is known to include fruits, worms, and insects. It also takes in sand and small stones as digestive aids.

Breeding

Blue-billed curassows reach sexual maturity at three years of age. The blue-billed curassow's breeding season spans from mid-December to early March. It is reported to be monogamous. It builds a large nest of sticks and dead leaves and conceals it in dense vine tangles. It typically places it between the understory and the subcanopy. The clutch size is two to three eggs. Eggs are incubated for 32 days before hatching full-feathered.

Vocalization

Male blue-billed curassows "boom" from the ground, "a 4–5-syllable series of deep notes...repeated over and over, 'hmm...hmh...hmm...hmm...hmh. Both sexes give an alarm call, a "soft, high-pitched whistle 'peh-weeeéoh' or 'pehoo.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the blue-billed curassow as Critically Endangered. Its population is estimated to be fewer than 1,500 mature individuals and its population is fragmented and decreasing. Deforestation and hunting are the major threats. The ProAves El Paujil Bird Reserve in

Santander Department Santander () is a department of Colombia. Santander inherited the name of one of the nine original states of the United States of Colombia. It is located in the central northern part of the country, borders the Magdalena River to the east, Bo ...

was created in 2003 especially to protect one population. Captive breeding has been successful.

Threats

One of the threats facing blue-billed curassows is habitat loss/fragmentation. Habitat loss occurs from widespread use of herbicides by the

Colombian government The Government of Colombia is a republic with separation of powers into executive, judicial and legislative branches. Its legislature has a congress, its judiciary has a supreme court, and its executive branch has a president. The citiz ...

. Forests have also been cleared for agriculture, livestock, oil extraction, and mining. Around 98% to 99% of blue-billed curassow habitat has been lost. Hunting is the most immediate threat to the species. Studied populations are not estimated to survive another 100 years as hunting has the greatest impact on the expected extinction date.

Conservation Efforts

In 1991, the International Council for Bird Preservation petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to add the blue-billed curassow to the

Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting and conserving imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of e ...

. The species was listed as endangered under the act in 2013. Blue-billed curassows are currently listed as an Alliance for Zero Extinction species. Without intervention, populations of blue-billed curassows are not viable for a 100-year period. The most immediate conservation strategies recommended are to eliminate or significantly reduce hunting. Agreements have already been signed with property owners in San Bartolo, La Ganadera, and Rancho Verde ranches to guarantee forest protection and no hunting within their boundaries. This method, combined with captive-bred individuals will help population viability.

References

External links

BirdLife Species Factsheet.
* (for

) with RangeMap
Blue-billed Curassow photo gallery
VIREO

oiseaux {{Taxonbar, from=Q1043334 Crax Curassows Endemic birds of Colombia Birds described in 1852 Taxa named by Louis Fraser Taxonomy articles created by Polbot