Red-legged seriema

Red-legged seriema
Near Goiânia in central Brazil
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Cariamiformes
Family:	Cariamidae
Genus:	Cariama
Species:	C. cristata
Synonyms
Genus-level: Microdactylus É.Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1809 Species-level: Microdactylus marcgravii É.Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1809 Palamedea cristata (Linnaeus, 1766)

The red-legged seriema or crested cariama (Cariama cristata) is a mostly predatory terrestrial bird in the seriema family (Cariamidae), included in the "Gruiformes" in the old paraphyletic circumscription, but increasingly placed in a distinct order Cariamiformes (along with three extinct families). The red-legged seriema inhabits grasslands from Brazil south of the Amazon to Uruguay and northern Argentina. The area over which it occurs is estimated at 5.9 million km², though the bird is not found everywhere in this region of course. The species is absent from the Mata Atlântica and planalto uplands along the coast of Brazil.^[1]

Description

Close-up of Cariama cristata

It is 75 to 90 cm (30 to 36 in) long and weighs about 1.5 kg, with a fairly long neck, tail, and legs. The plumage is medium brown above with black markings; pale brown on the head, neck, and breast; and white on the belly. The tail has a black band near the tip and a white tip. The beak and legs are red, and the eyes are yellow. Soft feathers emerge from the base of the bill to form a fan-shaped crest.^[2]

Many other characteristics are shared with the black-legged seriema (Chunga burmeisteri), the only other living member of its family. Some of these traits are discussed in the Cariamidae article.

The song has a quality described as "a cross between 'the serrated bark of a young dog and the clucking of turkeys'".^[3] At the loudest part of the song, the bird has its neck bent so its head is touching its back. Both members of a pair as well as young down to the age of two weeks sing; often one member of a family starts a song just as another finishes, or two sing simultaneously. The song can be heard several kilometres away; in Emas National Park, Brazil, in 1981–1982, observers often heard four red-legged seriemas or groups singing at once.^[4]

The full song consists of three sections:

1. Repeated single notes at constant pitch (1,200 to 1,300 Hz) and duration but increasing tempo
2. Repeated two- or three-note subphrases of slightly higher pitch with increasing tempo
3. Subphrases of up to 10 notes, shorter ones rising in pitch and longer ones falling, two-subphrase combinations increasing in number of notes and tempo and then decreasing in tempo.

Ecology

The sickle claw of a red-legged seriema, used in fighting.

The red-legged seriema prefers grassland habitat to any other. Though it likes to inhabit lush meadows near rivers, it will not readily move into wetlands or crop fields.^[5] It is usually seen singly or in pairs, but sometimes in groups up to four, apparently families. It typically walks on the ground and can easily run faster than a human in its habitat. It will flee a car on foot at speeds up to 25 km/h (15 mi/hr) before flying.^[4]

In one conflict between two birds, they jumped at each other feet-first, keeping their balance by flapping.^[4]

This species nests on the ground^[2] or in a bush or tree up to 3 m above the ground. In the latter case adults jump into the nest rather than fly.^[4]

Gallery

• 

  Jacksonville Zoo, Florida

• 

  Jacksonville Zoo, Florida

• 

  Weltvogelpark Walsrode, Germany

• 

  Front view of the head

• 

  Screaming Cariama cristata at Parque das Aves (Foz do Iguaçu).

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cariama cristata.