The speckled chachalaca (''Ortalis guttata'') 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 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 ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

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 taxonomic history of the speckled chachalaca is complex. It was at one time considered

conspecific Biological specificity is the tendency of a characteristic such as a behavior or a biochemical variation to occur in a particular species. Biochemist Linus Pauling stated that "Biological specificity is the set of characteristics of living organism ...

with what was then called the variable chachalaca (''Ortalis motmot'') and buff-browed chachalaca (''O. superciliaris''). They were split and the variable chachalaca has since been split further.Kirwan, G. M., J. del Hoyo, N. Collar, and D. A. Christie (2020). Speckled Chachalaca (''Ortalis guttata''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.specha3.01 retrieved September 29, 2021 (Confusingly, the

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union (IOU) is an international organization for the promotion of ornithology. It links basic and applied research and nurtures education and outreach activities. Specifically, the IOU organizes and funds global co ...

(IOC) then renamed ''O. motmot'' little chachalaca but the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

(AOS) and the

Clements taxonomy ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 202 ...

retained the name "variable" for it.) Later still, three more species were split from speckled chachalaca, the East Brazilian (''O. araucuan''), scaled (''O. squamata''), and Colombian (''O. columbiana'') chachalacas.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, 2021Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ Retrieved August 25, 2021 The speckled chachalaca as now understood has three subspecies, the nominate ''O. g. guttata'', ''O. g. subaffinis'', and ''O. g. remota''. However, some authors treat the last as a subspecies of scaled chachalaca and others suggest it deserves to be an entirely separate species.

Description

The speckled chachalaca is long. The nominate subspecies is mostly brown above with a darker and grayer head and neck. The mantle has a chestnut wash; the tail has a bronze gloss and the outer feathers are rufous. The throat and breast are dark brown with the eponymous white speckles. The lower breast and belly are light grayish brown and the vent bright rufous. The eye is dark brown to dark reddish brown and is surrounded by bare slate blue skin. ''O. g. subaffinis'' is lighter but browner overall than the nominate, does not have the chestnut wash on the mantle, and the marks on the throat and breast are more scalloped than speckled. It is also somewhat larger. ''O. g. remota''s description is from a single specimen. It differs from the nominate: Its crown is rufescent rather than gray, it is paler and more olive above, the rump is chestnut, and the "speckles" are larger and less well defined.

Distribution and habitat

The nominate subspecies of speckled chachalaca is found in the Amazonia of eastern Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru; northern Bolivia; and western Brazil. ''O. g. subaffinis'' is found in the Amazonia of eastern and northeastern Bolivia and adjoining southwestern Brazil. ''O. g. remota'' is, as its specific epithet implies, remote from the other two subspecies; it is found in southeastern Brazil's

Mato Grosso do Sul Mato Grosso do Sul ( ) is one of Federative units of Brazil, Brazil's 27 federal units, located in the southern part of the Central-West Region, Brazil, Central-West Region, bordering five Brazilian states: Mato Grosso (to the north), Goiás and ...

and

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

states. The speckled chachalaca inhabits a variety of tropical and subtropical landscapes. The two Amazonian subspecies is typically found in low or open forest, thickets, "forest islands" in savanna, '' várzea'', and riparian and floodplain forest. They shun the interior of '' terra firme'' forest. They reach their highest elevations at the western edge of their range, usually up to in Bolivia, in Ecuador, and in Peru though locally higher in all three countries. ''O. g. remota'' is found only in secondary woodland and the edges of

gallery forest A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...

in its small zone.

Behavior

Feeding

The speckled chachalaca mostly forages in small flocks of up to seven birds, primarily in the subcanopy and understory and only rarely on the ground. Its diet has not been extensively studied but is known to include fruits and other plant material.

Breeding

The speckled chachalaca's breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

is poorly known. Its nesting season appears to vary across its range but in Peru encompasses at least November to March. One nest was made entirely of leaves on a bed of dry ferns. The clutch size is three to four eggs.

Vocalization

The song of the nominate speckled chachalaca is a "rhythmic five-syllable phrase rendered ''ha-ga-GAA-gogok'', repeated rapidly." Those of the other subspecies are similar.

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 speckled chachalaca as being of Least Concern. The two Amazonian subspecies are generally common throughout their range and occur in protected areas in every country. They seem to tolerate human activity fairly well, and hunting pressure is less than that suffered by other chachalacas. ''O. g. remota'', however, is very rare; much of its habitat was flooded by hydroelectric reservoirs and Brazilian authorities consider it Critically Endangered.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1266317 speckled chachalaca Birds of the Amazon rainforest Birds of the Colombian Amazon Birds of the Venezuelan Amazon Birds of the Ecuadorian Amazon Birds of Peruvian Amazonia speckled chachalaca Taxonomy articles created by Polbot