The white-browed guan (''Penelope jacucaca'') 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
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 ...
to northeastern
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 ...
.
Taxonomy and systematics
The white-browed guan has at times been 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 the
white-crested guan
The white-crested guan (''Penelope pileata'') is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found only in regions of the eastern Amazon basin of Brazil. The species is restricted to the southern riverba ...
(''Penelope pileata'') and
chestnut-bellied guan
The chestnut-bellied guan (''Penelope ochrogaster'') is a species of bird in the family Cracidae. It is found only in Brazil. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest and subtropical or tropical swampland. It is threatened by ...
(''P. ochrogaster'') and also treated as a subspecies of the
rusty-margined guan
The rusty-margined guan (''Penelope superciliaris'') is a species of bird in the family Cracidae, which includes the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay.
Taxonomy and systematics
The Inte ...
(''P. superciliaris'').
[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][del Hoyo, J. and G. M. Kirwan (2020). White-browed Guan (''Penelope jacucaca''), 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.whbgua1.01 retrieved September 28, 2021] It 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 ...
.
[
]
Description
The white-browed guan is long. It gets its name from the prominent white supercilium
The supercilium is a plumage feature found on the heads of some bird species. It is a stripe which runs from the base of the bird's beak above its eye, finishing somewhere towards the rear of the bird's head.Dunn and Alderfer (2006), p. 10 Also k ...
, which has a black line separating it from the bare grayish skin around the eye. The adult plumage is overall blackish brown, with prominent white streaks on the upper wing. It has the red dewlap
A dewlap is a longitudinal flap of skin or similar flesh that hangs beneath the lower jaw or neck of many vertebrates. More loosely, it can be various similar structures in the neck area, such as those caused by a double chin or the submandibula ...
that is typical of the genus. Juveniles do not have the dewlap, their facial skin is yellowish, and the white streaks are fainter.[
]
Distribution and habitat
The white-browed guan is found in northeastern Brazil in an area roughly bounded by southern Maranhão
Maranhão () is a States of Brazil, state in Brazil. Located in the country's Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region, it has a population of about 7 million and an area of and it is divided into 217 municipalities. Clockwise from north, it ...
, northeastern Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...
, and the Atlantic coast. It inhabits several dry forest types including open ''angical'', ''caatinga
Caatinga () is a type of semi-arid tropical vegetation, and an ecoregion characterized by this vegetation in interior northeastern Brazil. The name "Caatinga" comes from the Tupi word '' ka'atinga'', meaning "white forest" or "white vegetat ...
'', ''restinga
Restingas () are a distinct type of coastal tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest in eastern Brazil. They form on sandy, acidic, and nutrient-poor soils, and are characterized by medium-sized trees and shrubs adapted to the drier and n ...
'', and sometimes ''campo rupestre
The ''campo rupestre'' ("rupestrian grassland") is a discontinuous montane subtropical ecoregion occurring across three different biomes in Brazil: Cerrado, Atlantic Forest and Caatinga. Originally, ''campo rupestre'' was used to characterize th ...
'' grassland. It appears to tolerate some habitat degradation. In elevation it ranges from sea level to .[
]
Behavior
Movement
The white-browed guan's movement pattern has not been studied but it is assumed to be sedentary but for short-range travel for food and water.[
]
Feeding
The white-browed guan typically feeds on the ground in groups of up to seven birds. Its diet has not been detailed but is thought to include fruits, seeds, and insects. It visits water sources to drink.[
]
Breeding
The white-browed guan's breeding season has not been defined though it appears to include at least part of the rainy season. It builds a nest of sticks lined with dry leaves in a tree or palm. The clutch size is two or three eggs.[
]
Vocal and non-vocal sounds
The white-browed guan gives a wing-whirring display similar to that of other ''Penelope'' guans. It has several types of calls described as "various honking but few raucous or grating".[
]
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 ...
originally assessed the white-browed guan as Threatened but since 2004 has classed it as Vulnerable. Though it occurs in several protected areas, it is not found continuously through its range. Its population has declined due to habitat destruction
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...
and hunting and it has been extirpated from some areas.[
]
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1078237
white-browed guan
Birds of the Caatinga
Endemic birds of Brazil
white-browed guan
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot