Great Tinamou

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iGreat Tinamou

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Tinamiformes
Family:	Tinamidae
Genus:	Tinamus
Species:	T. major

Binomial name

Tinamus major
Gmelin, 1789

The Great Tinamou, Tinamus major is a species of bird native to Central and South America, one of about 47 species of tinamou. It is 43 cm long, 1100 g in weight and approximately the size and shape of a small turkey. It is gray-brown in color and well-camouflaged in the rainforest understory.

This is a polygynandrous species, and one that features exclusive male parental care. A female will mate with a male and lay an average of four eggs which he then incubates until hatching. He cares for the chicks for approximately 3 weeks before moving on to find another female. Meanwhile, the female has left clutches of eggs with other males. She may start nests with five or six males during each 8-month-long breeding season, leaving all parental care to the males. The eggs are large, shiny, and bright blue in color, and the nests are usually rudimentary scrapings in the buttress roots of trees.

Except during mating, when a pair stay together until the eggs are laid, Great Tinamous are solitary and roam the dark understory alone, seeking seeds, fruit, and small animals such as insects, spiders, frogs and small lizards in the leaf litter.

The Great Tinamou has a distinctive call, three short but powerful piping notes which can be heard in its rainforest habitat in the early evenings.

There are several subspecies, mostly differentiated by their coloration.

Widespread throughout its large range, the Great Tinamou is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2004). Tinamus major. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
Brennan, P. T. R. (2004). Techniques for studying the behavioral ecology of forest-dwelling tinamous (Tinamidae). Ornitologia Neotropical 15(Suppl.) 329-337.
Stiles and Skutch, A guide to the birds of Costa Rica ISBN 0-8014-9600-4