The sickle-winged guan (''Chamaepetes goudotii'') 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 chachalaca, guan, and curassow 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 ...

. It is found in

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 ...

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 ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

, and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

.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. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved August 24, 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

The sickle-winged guan shares the genus ''Chamaepetes'' with the

black guan The black guan (''Chamaepetes unicolor'') is a species of bird in the chachalaca, guan, and curassow family Cracidae. It is found in Costa Rica and Panama. Taxonomy and systematics The black guan shares the genus ''Chamaepetes'' with the sic ...

(''C. unicolor'') of southern Central America and may form a superspecies with it.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, 2021 It has the five subspecies listed in the box to the right.

Description

The sickle-winged guan is long and weighs . The subspecies differ in size; ''C. g. tschudii'' and ''C. g. rufiventris'' are the largest. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a brown head and neck, dark upperparts, bright chestnut belly, pale blue facial skin, and red eyes. Juveniles are similar but duller. ''C. g. sanctaemarthae''s upper breast, throat, and cheeks are redder than the nominate's and its vent area a darker red. ''C. g. fagani''s head and upperparts are much darker than those of the nominate and ''sanctaemarthae'' and its underparts are chestnut. ''C. g. tschudii'' is similar to ''fagani'' but has more olive-brown upperparts and the chestnut of the underparts is lighter. ''C. g. rufiventris'' has gray edges on its neck feathers that give a scaly appearance; it is also a paler olive above and less chestnut on the underparts than ''tschudii''.del Hoyo, J. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Sickle-winged Guan (''Chamaepetes goudotii''), 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.siwgua1.01 retrieved September 25, 2021

Distribution and habitat

The subspecies of sickle-winged guan are distributed thus: * ''C. g. goudotii'', western and central Andes of Colombia south to

Nariño Department Nariño () is a department of Colombia named after independence leader Antonio Nariño. Its capital is Pasto. It is in the west of the country, bordering Ecuador and the Pacific Ocean. Nariño has a diverse geography and varied climate acc ...

* ''C. g. sanctaemarthae'',

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta (English: ''Snow-Covered Mountain Range of Saint Martha'') is an isolated mountain range in northern Colombia, separate from the Andes range that runs through the north of the country. Reaching an elevation of ...

of northeastern Colombia * ''C. g. fagani'', west slope of the Andes from Colombia's Nariño Department south to Ecuador's

El Oro Province El Oro (; ''oro'' = gold) is the southernmost of Ecuador's coastal provinces. It was named for its historically important gold production. Today it is one of the world's major exporters of bananas. The capital is Machala. History The area was s ...

* ''C. g. tschudii'', east slope of the Andes from southern Colombia through Ecuador to Peru's

Department of San Martín San Martín () is a department and region in northern Peru. Most of the department is located in the upper part of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest. Its capital is Moyobamba and the largest city in the department is Tarapoto. Geography Bounda ...

* ''C. g. rufiventris'', east slope of the Andes from central to southern Peru and isolated areas in north and central Bolivia The sickle-winged guan inhabits humid and wet forest, preferring tall forest but also found at edges and in

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused Disturbance (ecology), disturbances, such as Logging, timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or ...

. The sickle-winged guan is generally a bird of middle elevations. It reaches as high as in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta but elsewhere in Colombia is mostly between . In Peru it is typically found between . Its Bolivian populations are at the highest elevations, .

Behavior

Feeding

The sickle-winged guan primarily forages in fruiting trees, often as high as above ground. Pairs forage together or as part of groups of up to eight birds, usually around dawn and dusk. It mostly feeds on small fruits but also adds flowers, leaves, and invertebrates for as much as 15% of its diet. In some areas it frequents feeding stations to eat bananas.

Breeding

The sickle-winged guan's breeding season in the Colombian Andes spans from January to June and may extend beyond that in other areas. The nest is a platform of thin branches, moss, and green and dead vegetation, usually placed in a tree fork or on a

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a Family (biology), family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the Tropics, tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and on ...

. The clutch size is two or three eggs.

Vocal and non-vocal sounds

The ''fagini'' subspecies of sickle-winged guan gives an " extremely thin, high-pitched...whistle" and a "''keeeeeee-uk!''" alarm call. Its wing-whirring display is usually given at dawn and dusk as it flies back and forth between two trees.

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 sickle-winged guan as being of Least Concern. It is considered to be fairly common to common except in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the small Bolivian enclaves. It appears to tolerate some habitat alteration and, at least away from villages, to not have much hunting pressure.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1078580 sickle-winged guan sickle-winged guan Birds of the Northern Andes sickle-winged guan Taxa named by René Lesson Taxonomy articles created by Polbot