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Bartlett's Tinamou | Crypturellus bartletti
Bartletts tinamoe | Tinamú de Bartlett | Inhambu-anhangaí
Bartlett's Tinamou is a medium-sized, dark tinamou of the western Amazonian lowlands. It lives on the floor of tall forest and gives itself away mainly by its call. Its rising series of tremulous whistles are among the regular morning and evening sounds of lowland forest in eastern Ecuador and Peru.
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Voice
A series of tremulous whistles that rises in pitch and accelerates, mainly at dawn and dusk, sometimes also during the day.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
25–27 cm, with a small head, a thin bill and almost no tail. The head is dark greyish brown, with a whitish throat. The neck and breast are rufous-brown to cinnamon, the belly paler buff. The back and wings are brown with dark and pale barring; the flanks are also barred dark. The sexes are similar; females are usually more heavily barred on the back.
Confusion species
Variegated Tinamou Crypturellus variegatus has a blackish crown, a brighter rufous neck and breast and a back with contrasting black and buff bars. Little Tinamou Crypturellus soui is smaller and has an unbarred back. Undulated Tinamou Crypturellus undulatus is larger and greyer, with fine vermiculations, and lives more often in riverine forest. Brazilian Tinamou Crypturellus strigulosus has a greyer breast and a less heavily barred back, and its call is a long, sustained whistle.
Habitat
The floor of humid terra firme lowland forest, also seasonally flooded forest, forest edge and older secondary forest, locally bamboo forest; mainly below about 600 m. It walks over the forest floor, feeding on fallen fruit, seeds and insects. The nest is on the ground; the male incubates the eggs.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia only in the far south of the Amazonian lowlands. In Ecuador in the eastern lowlands. In Peru widespread in the Amazonian lowlands. In Bolivia in the northern lowlands. Absent from the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in western Brazilian Amazonia.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Listen at dawn along lowland forest trails, for example at the lodges of eastern Ecuador and around the biological stations of Peruvian Amazonia, for the rising series of whistles. Birds walk quietly across the trail or stand still in the undergrowth.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Locally hunted and affected by forest loss; still common in large, unbroken forests.
Scientific name
Crypturellus bartletti | (Sclater & Salvin, 1873)
Sclater & Salvin described the species in 1873 as Crypturus bartletti; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Crypturellus was introduced in 1914 by Brabourne, WWK-H & Chubb. The genus name comes from Greek kruptos, 'hidden', and oura, 'tail', with the Latin diminutive -ellus: 'little hidden tail'. The species name honours Edward Bartlett (1836–1908), English naturalist who collected in Peru. The specimen the first description was based on came from Santa Cruz, eastern Peru.