All species › Gamebirds › Guans, curassows and chachalacas › Grey-headed Chachalaca
Grey-headed Chachalaca | Ortalis cinereiceps
Grijskopchachalaca | Chachalaca cabecigrís | Aracuã-de-cabeça-cinza
The Grey-headed Chachalaca is a slender, long-tailed tree-dwelling cracid of Central America that in the guide area occurs only in north-western Colombia. Groups clamber through forest edges and scrub and give themselves away with loud, grating calls.
Voice
Loud, grating and rasping calls, often by several birds at once, especially in the early morning; also softer, plaintive whistles within the group.
Recording: Paul Driver — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
43–51 cm. Head and upper neck are grey, the rest of the body olive-brown, paler and greyer below. The primaries are chestnut and show in flight. The long tail is dark olive-green with a pale grey terminal band. There is a small patch of bare red skin on the throat. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Chestnut-winged Chachalaca Ortalis garrula, further east, has a rufous-chestnut head and a white belly. Crested Guan Penelope purpurascens is much larger, with a crest, white streaks on the breast and neck and a large red dewlap.
Habitat
Forest edges, secondary forest, riverside scrub, open woodland with scattered trees and shaded plantations; from the lowlands to about 1000 m. It lives in groups of four to ten birds in the middle storey and canopy and eats fruit, leaves and buds. The nest is a shallow platform of twigs in a bush or low tree.
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 north-west, in northern Chocó and around the Gulf of Urabá, on the border with Panama. Absent from Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. Outside the guide area from eastern Honduras through Nicaragua and Costa Rica to Panama.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search at dawn in forest edges and along rivers in north-western Colombia, where the grating calls give the groups away. Birds often feed in fruiting trees along roads and around farmsteads.
Conservation status
Listed as Least Concern. It benefits from forest edges and secondary forest and tolerates moderate hunting better than larger cracids.
Scientific name
Ortalis cinereiceps | Gray, 1867
Gray described the species in 1867 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Ortalis was introduced in 1786 by Merrem. The genus name comes from Ancient Greek ortalis, 'pullet' or 'hen'. The species name comes from Latin cinereus, 'ash-grey', and -ceps, 'headed', for the grey head. The specimen the first description was based on came from (per the description).