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Choco Tinamou | Crypturellus kerriae
Chocótinamoe | Tinamú del Chocó | Inhambu-do-chocó
The Choco Tinamou is a small, dark tinamou with a very small range in the hills of the northern Chocó, on both sides of the border between Colombia and Panama. Little is known of its habits; most records are based on its call.
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Voice
A low, plaintive whistle, repeated at intervals, mainly at dawn and at dusk.
Recording: Andrew Spencer — CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
25–27 cm, with a small head, a thin neck and almost no tail. The head is dark slate grey, the upperparts dark rufous-brown to chocolate-brown, the throat white and the underparts brownish, slightly paler on the flanks. The female has fine black barring on the wings. The legs are reddish.
Confusion species
Little Tinamou Crypturellus soui is paler and warmer brown, without the dark grey head. Great Tinamou Tinamus major is much larger and olive-brown. Highland Tinamou Nothocercus bonapartei lives higher in the mountains, has rufous underparts and pale spots on the wings.
Habitat
The floor of humid forest on steep hills and low mountain slopes, roughly between 200 and 750 m. It walks on the ground searching for seeds, fruit and invertebrates. Little is known about the nest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the northern Chocó, in the Serranía del Baudó and in the hills along the border with Panama. Absent from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in eastern Panama (Darién).
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
The species lives in remote terrain. Listen in the early morning in hill forest in the Serranía del Baudó for the whistles.
Conservation status
Near Threatened (NT). The range is small; threats are deforestation and hunting. Much of its habitat lies in remote, little-disturbed areas, in Panama within Darién National Park.
Scientific name
Crypturellus kerriae | (Chapman, 1915)
Chapman described the species in 1915 as Crypturus kerriae; 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 Elizabeth L. Kerr, American bird collector in Colombia, who collected the type. The specimen the first description was based on came from Baudó, Chocó, Colombia.