The huayco tinamou (''Rhynchotus maculicollis''), also known as ''waypu'' (

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

)Martín R. de la Peña, Diccionario de nombres vulgares de las Aves de Argentina, Serie Naturaleza, Conservación y Sociedad, No. 1, 2011 (also spelled ''guaipo'', ''huaipo'', ''guaypo'', ''waypo'', a name which is also applied for other '' Tinamidae'' species), is a species of bird found on grassy mountain ridges in the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

.Clements, J (2007)

Taxonomy

All

tinamou Tinamous () are members of the order Tinamiformes (), and family Tinamidae (), divided into two distinct subfamily, subfamilies, containing 46 species found in Mexico, Central America, and South America. The word "tinamou" comes from the Carib la ...

s are from the family Tinamidae, and in the larger scheme are also

ratite Ratites () are a polyphyletic group consisting of all birds within the infraclass Palaeognathae that lack keels and cannot fly. They are mostly large, long-necked, and long-legged, the exception being the kiwi, which is also the only nocturnal ...

s. 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.Davies, S. J. J. F. (2003) Previously, it was considered a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of the red-winged tinamou, but it has a different song, and its head and neck are streaked and spotted black. The SACC split this into a monotypic species and 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 ...

followed suit in 2006.Remsen Jr., J. V. (2000)

Description

The huayco tinamou has a black streaked and spotted head and neck.

Behavior

Like other tinamous, the huayco tinamou eats

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

off the ground or low-lying bushes. They also eat small amounts of

invertebrates Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordate subphylum ...

, flower buds, tender

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

, seeds, and

root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...

s. The male incubates the

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

s which may come from different females, and then will raise them until they are ready to be on their own. The nest is located on the ground in dense

brush A brush is a common tool with bristles, wire or other filaments. It generally consists of a handle or block to which filaments are affixed in either a parallel or perpendicular orientation, depending on the way the brush is to be gripped during u ...

or between raised root buttresses.

Range and habitat

The huayco tinamou lives in the

of northwestern

and

from . It prefers

semi-arid A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a aridity, dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below Evapotranspiration#Potential evapotranspiration, potential evapotranspiration, but not as l ...

scrub and cereal fields.

Conservation

The

classifies this tinamou as

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

, with an occurrence range of .BirdLife International (2008)

Footnotes

References

* * * * *

huayco tinamou The huayco tinamou (''Rhynchotus maculicollis''), also known as ''waypu'' (Quechua)Martín R. de la Peña, Diccionario de nombres vulgares de las Aves de Argentina, Serie Naturaleza, Conservación y Sociedad, No. 1, 2011 (also spelled ''guaipo'', ...

Tinamous of South America Birds of the Puna grassland

{{Tinamiformes-stub