Blue-throated piping guan facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Blue-throated piping guan |
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Pipile
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cumanensis
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The blue-throated piping guan (Pipile cumanensis) is a cool bird found in parts of South America. It lives in countries like Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, the Guianas, Peru, and Venezuela. This bird belongs to a family called Cracidae, which includes guans, chachalacas, and curassows.
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Meet the Blue-throated Piping Guan
What's in a Name? Understanding Bird Families
Scientists group animals together based on how they are related. The blue-throated piping guan is part of the Pipile group. For a while, scientists debated how many different types of piping guans there were. They even thought some were just different versions of the Trinidad piping guan.
Now, most scientists agree there are five different species of piping guans. The blue-throated piping guan is considered its own unique species. However, some groups, like the South American Classification Committee, still think the white-throated piping guan is a subspecies of the blue-throated one.
How to Spot a Blue-throated Piping Guan
This bird looks quite unique, almost like something from a long time ago! It's also very handsome. Blue-throated piping guans are about 60 to 69 centimeters (24 to 27 inches) long. They weigh between 970 and 1350 grams (2.1 to 3.0 pounds).
They have a long neck and tail. Their head and neck look quite thin and small compared to their body. Their tail is also very long. Both male and female birds look alike. Most of their feathers are blackish. They have a cool greenish-blue shine, especially on their shoulders, wings, and tail.
Their forehead, the top of their head, and the back of their neck are white. The edges of their chest feathers are also white. You'll see a big white patch on their folded wing. The skin around their dark reddish-brown eyes can be white to bright blue. They also have bare skin under their chin, called a dewlap. This skin can be white, blue, purple, or black. Their beak can be pale blue with a black tip, or black with a pinkish-blue base. Their legs are usually reddish.
Where Do Blue-throated Piping Guans Live?
Finding Their Home: Distribution and Habitat
You can find the blue-throated piping guan in many parts of South America. This includes northwestern Bolivia, eastern Peru, and eastern Ecuador. They also live in central and eastern Colombia, southern and eastern Venezuela, the Guianas, and northwestern Brazil.
These birds love humid tropical forests, especially in the Amazon Basin. They live in different types of forests, including those on higher ground and those that flood. They also like forests along rivers. In the Guianas, they can even be found in less forested areas near the coast.
They almost always stay within about 100 meters (330 feet) of rivers. You can find them at different heights above sea level. For example, they live up to 300 meters (980 feet) in Bolivia and up to 1100 meters (3,600 feet) in Peru.
Life and Habits of the Blue-throated Piping Guan
Staying Put or Moving Around?
Scientists believe these birds usually stay in one place. However, they might move short distances. This could be to find food, especially fruits, or to move to different elevations.
What's on the Menu? Feeding Habits
The blue-throated piping guan mainly eats fruits and leaves. They especially love figs. But they also eat fruits from many other types of plants. During the time they are nesting, they look for food in pairs or small family groups.
When it's not nesting season, they might gather in larger groups. These groups can have up to 30 birds! They often gather at places where they can find salt. They usually look for food high up in the trees, in the canopy. But sometimes, they will feed on the ground under a tree that has lots of fruit. These birds also sometimes eat soil or clay, which is called geophagy.
Family Life: Breeding Habits
The breeding season for the blue-throated piping guan generally runs from August to possibly April. It seems to happen during the local wet season. Their nests are made of twigs and are usually built high up in thick tree branches.
They typically lay one to three eggs. We only know how long the eggs take to hatch from birds in zoos. In captivity, it takes about 24 to 28 days for the eggs to hatch. We don't know how long it takes for the young birds to be ready to fly from the nest.
Sounds of the Guan: Calls and Displays
The blue-throated piping guan is mostly vocal during the breeding season. They have a special flight display. They clap their wings once or twice, then sing their song. The song is about 6 to 10 slow, clear whistles that get a little higher in pitch and longer. It sounds like "püüeee, püüeee, püüeee..." They often do this display above the forest trees, usually at dawn and dusk.
They also make another sound called "wing-whirring." This involves two quick, quiet wing-claps, followed by two or three whirring rattles made with their wings. It sounds like "prrrrrrrip-purrrrrr." People have said this sound is like fanning a deck of cards back and forth.
Is the Blue-throated Piping Guan Safe?
Conservation Status
The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) has assessed the blue-throated piping guan as a species of "Least Concern." This means they are not currently in immediate danger of disappearing.
However, even though they live across a very large area, we don't know exactly how many there are. Scientists believe their population is decreasing. These birds are sometimes hunted for food and kept as pets. While no immediate big threats have been found, their numbers are going down.
They can be rare in some areas but common in others. Because they prefer to live near rivers and are easy to spot, they might be more vulnerable than other birds in tropical forests. They also suffer in some places because their forest homes are being destroyed, mainly for farming.
Images for kids
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A blue-throated piping guan at Denver Zoo.
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Map showing the distribution of the blue-throated piping guan.
