The slaty-breasted tinamou or Boucard's tinamou (''Crypturellus boucardi'') is a type of

tinamou Tinamous () form an order of birds called Tinamiformes (), comprising a single family called Tinamidae (), divided into two distinct subfamilies, containing 46 species found in Mexico, Central America, and South America. The word "tinamou" comes ...

commonly found in lowland moist forests of

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

and

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

.Clements, J (2007)

Taxonomy

All tinamou are from the family Tinamidae, and in the larger scheme are also ratites. 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) The slaty-breasted tinamou has two sub-species: * '' C. b. boucardi'' (the nominate subspecies) ranges along the lowlands of the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United S ...

and Caribbean coast in southeastern

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wa ...

, Guatemala, and northwestern Honduras * '' C. b. costaricensis'' ranges on the Caribbean slope in Honduras,

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean Sea, Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to ...

, and northern Costa Rica

Philip Sclater Philip Lutley Sclater (4 November 1829 – 27 June 1913) was an English lawyer and zoologist. In zoology, he was an expert ornithologist, and identified the main zoogeographic regions of the world. He was Secretary of the Zoological Societ ...

identified the slaty-breasted tinamou from a specimen from

Oaxaca ) , population_note = , population_rank = 10th , timezone1 = CST , utc_offset1 = −6 , timezone1_DST = CDT , utc_offset1_DST = −5 , postal_code_type = Postal ...

, in 1859.

Etymology

''Crypturellus'' can be broken down into the following: ''kruptos'' meaning covered or hidden, ''oura'' meaning the tail and ''ellus'' meaning diminutive. Therefore, ''Crypturellus'' means the small covered tail. Finally, ''boucardi'' is the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

form of Boucard to commemorate Adolphe Boucard.Gotch, A. F. (1995)

Range and habitat

Range

It is commonly found in lowland moist forest in subtropical and tropical regions up to altitude.BirdLife International (2008a) This species ranges along the

coast from southern Mexico, from southern

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

and northern

Oaxaca ) , population_note = , population_rank = 10th , timezone1 = CST , utc_offset1 = −6 , timezone1_DST = CDT , utc_offset1_DST = −5 , postal_code_type = Postal ...

south, to northern Costa Rica.

, Guatemala, Honduras,

and Costa Rica.Clements, J (2007)

Habitat

It prefers thick evergreen forests with thick undergrowth, but also can be found in thick forests with little undergrowth, secondary forests, and on regenerating plantations. It likes moist areas as well.

Description

The slaty-breasted tinamou averages in length, and weighs about . Its back and head are black to chestnut in color, brown on its wings, slaty grey on its breast, white on its throat, grey-brown on remainder of its underparts with darker barring on flanks and undertail. The female has barring on its wings. Its legs are pink to bright red, and its bill is dark above and yellow below.

Behavior

It is a shy and difficult

to be seen on the dark forest floors. Its call is a three-note call and lower than other tinamous. Its calls can be in long bouts, up to five hours at a time. This tinamou and the thicket tinamou will produce hybrids on occasion.

Feeding

Like other tinamous, it feeds on fruit and seeds and some

invertebrates Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

, in particular, ants and termites.

Reproduction

The slaty-breasted tinamou male attracts 2 to 4 females to lay in its nest on the ground and in thick vegetation or between the raised roots of a tree. The male incubates and raises the young. Females will mate with more than one male.

Conservation

The IUCN has classified the slaty-breasted as vulnerable and it has an occurrence range of . It is hunted for food but its numbers seem to be consistent.

Footnotes

References

* * * * * * * *

External links

Stamps
(for

)
Slaty-breasted Tinamou photo gallery
VIREO {{Taxonbar, from=Q1264425 Crypturellus Birds of Central America Birds of Belize Birds of Costa Rica Birds of Guatemala Birds of Honduras Birds of Mexico Birds of Nicaragua Birds of the Yucatán Peninsula Birds described in 1859 Taxa named by Philip Sclater Petén–Veracruz moist forests