Gamebirds | Galliformes

Hoenderachtigen | Gamebirds | Gallináceas

Heavy-bodied birds with a short arched bill and powerful legs; the wood-quails scratch for food in leaf litter with their blunt claws, while the guans and curassows, which make up most of the species here, also forage widely in the canopy for fruit and leaves. The night is usually spent high in trees. The wings are short and rounded and the flight muscles pale: they give an explosive take-off and a short fast flight but no stamina, so most species spend their whole lives within a small area. Seeds, fruit, tubers and greenery are ground up in a heavy gizzard with the aid of swallowed grit and broken down further in a pair of long caeca. In many species the head and neck carry bare skin, a dewlap or a knob on the bill, and in the pheasant family the male's tarsus may bear one or more spurs. In the wood-quails the nest is on the ground and the clutch larger, whereas guans and curassows lay only two or three eggs in a stick nest in a tree or bush; the downy chicks walk or clamber off at once, and their flight feathers grow so fast that they can flutter up within a few days.

Famílias desta ordem

Guans, curassows and chachalacas | Cracidae37 espéciesIn the area of this guide the family numbers 37 species in nine genera, from the noisy chachalacas of scrub and forest edge and the guans of lowland and cloud forest, with the Andean Guan reaching the treeline, to the large curassows of the Amazonian forest and the helmeted curassows of the Andean foothills. They are gamebirds that, unlike their relatives, live mainly in trees: the tail is long and broad, the legs are sturdy and the hind toe sits level with the front toes, so they walk and clamber easily along branches. Many species have bare throat skin or a coloured dewlap, and in curassows the male carries a crest of curled feathers and often a knob, wattle or casque on the bill. They feed mainly on fruit, leaves and flowers and are important seed dispersers. Chachalacas call in chorus at dawn, guans make a dry rattle with their wings in flight, and in several species the windpipe is elongated, producing deep booming and whistling notes. The nest is an untidy platform in a tree or shrub, holding two or three large white eggs with a rough shell. Hunting has made the larger species scarce almost everywhere.
New World quail | Odontophoridae11 espéciesSmall, round-bodied gamebirds whose lower mandible has a serrated cutting edge, which gives the family its name. The leg carries no spur and is short and sturdy, suited to scratching and digging in the soil for seeds, tubers, berries and insects. Some species have a crest, and in many the head is boldly marked with rufous, black or white patches. The family is found only in the Americas; this guide includes eleven species in three genera. The Crested Bobwhite lives in open grassland and dry scrub in the north, the Tawny-faced Quail in lowland forest of the Chocó, and the rest are wood-quails of the genus Odontophorus, from Amazonian lowlands to cloud forest on the Andean slopes, including a few species with small ranges in Colombia. Wood-quails are rarely seen and are mostly heard at dawn and dusk, often in duet or in a chorus of the whole group. They nest on the ground, often under a canopy of grass or leaves, and live in fixed coveys that keep together with clear, far-carrying calls. When threatened they first crouch flat or run off and flush explosively only at the last moment.
Partridges, pheasants, grouse and allies | Phasianidae1 espécieThe largest and most varied family in the order: in many species the male carries one or more sharp spurs on the tarsus and is clearly bigger and more colourful than the cryptically marked female, with elongated tail or neck feathers and bare coloured skin on the head. Where the sexes look alike — in the smaller partridges and quails — those spurs are usually absent and the pair stays together; where they differ strongly, the female incubates alone. The nest is no more than a scraped hollow, hidden by the pattern of the sitting bird itself, and the clutch can run well into double figures. The primaries are moulted from the innermost outwards, so the bird never loses altogether what limited flying power it has.