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Salvin's Curassow | Mitu salvini
Salvins mesbekpauwies | Paujil de Salvin | Mutum-de-salvin
Salvin's Curassow is a large black curassow with a white belly and a broad white tail tip, almost restricted to western Amazonia north of the Amazon and the Marañón. It lives on the floor of undisturbed terra firme forest and usually escapes on foot.
Voice
A very deep, muffled humming, mmm… mm-mm, given mainly before dawn; also a high, thin whistle as an alarm.
Recording: John V. Moore — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
85–91 cm. Glossy blue-black, with a white belly, white undertail coverts and a broad white terminal band on the tail. The crown feathers are short and velvety and form a low, dense crest. The bill is bright red, tall and strongly compressed laterally, with a sharp, arched ridge; the legs are red. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Razor-billed Curassow Mitu tuberosum lives south of the Amazon and the Marañón, has a chestnut belly, a narrow white tail tip and an even taller, swollen bill. Crestless Curassow Mitu tomentosum has a chestnut belly and tail tip. Wattled Curassow Crax globulosa has a crest of curled feathers; the male has red knobs on the bill.
Habitat
Tall humid lowland forest on terra firme, locally also seasonally flooded forest and lower foothill forest; mostly below about 600 m. It walks alone or in pairs on the forest floor and eats fallen fruit, seeds and leaves. It nests in a tree, usually with two 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 in the south-east, east of the Andes. In Ecuador in the Amazonian lowlands. In Peru in the north-east, north of the Amazon and the Marañón. Absent from Bolivia. The species barely occurs outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Walk quietly early in the morning along trails in large, little-hunted terra firme forest, such as around lodges along the Napo and in the Yasuní area of Ecuador. Birds often walk ahead of the observer along the trail or perch on a low branch after being disturbed.
Conservation status
Listed as Least Concern. It disappears quickly from hunted forest near settlements and roads; in large, undisturbed forests it is still fairly common.
Scientific name
Mitu salvini | Reinhardt, 1879
Reinhardt described the species in 1879 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Mitu was introduced in 1831 by Lesson. The genus name comes from the Tupi name Mitú or Mutúm for the curassows, roughly 'black bird'; Marcgrave recorded it in 1648 as 'Mitu' or 'Mutu', and Lesson made it a genus name in 1831. The species name honours Osbert Salvin (1835–1898), British ornithologist and co-author of the Biologia Centrali-Americana. The specimen the first description was based on came from eastern Ecuador.