The bird known as the helmeted curassow, or Pauxi pauxi, is an interesting bird.  Too bad it may not be around forever.  The Pauxi pauxi seems to be declining in population.  Read on to see how this beautiful bird is seeming to die so quickly.

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The helmeted curassow is a somewhat large bird, at about 91 cm in length.  It is a black bird with a white belly.  Its beak and legs are a dull red-orange color.  Of course, this bird’s main characteristic is a strange bluish-gray casque on its head, hence the “helmeted” curassow.  During mating season, the male can be heard singing a low, ventriloquial sound.  This attracts a mate and repopulates the species.

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The P. pauxi can be found mainly in West Venezuela and North Colombia.  P. pauxi is mostly restricted to subtropical cloud-forest in steep, mountainous ranges.  In these forests, the helmeted curassow forages for food.  The P. pauxi usually builds a nest around March to hatch their young in about mid-May.  The helmeted curassow sadly is being lost mainly to hunting, even in protected areas.  Its species is also declining due to habitat loss.  The bird is hunted mainly for food and hunting trophies.  The bird is also captured for the “helmet” to make aphrodisiacs.  The P. pauxi is now considered endangered in Colombia and Venezuela. The species is declining with only about 1000 - 2499 species left.  It is one of the four top priority species for bird conservation in Venezuela.

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The helmeted curassow has a varied diet.  In its home forest, the bird will forage, mainly terrestrially,  for food such as fruits, seeds, leaves, grasses, buds, or insects.  The bird usually tends to search in pairs or family parties, competing mainly with other curassows and birds.  However, there are obviously other organisms that have a diet for this bird.  Although the P. pauxi  is hunted by humans, it is also prey to ocelots and sometimes ornate hawk-eagles.  When a predator is near a chick, curassows have been known to distract the predator with a flight display.

 

Now you know more about this peculiar-looking bird.  A last interesting fact is that this bird has two sub-species.  They are the Merida Helmeted Curassow, or Pauxi pauxi pauxi, and the Perija Helmeted Curassow, or Pauxi pauxi gilliardi.  Now we can only hope that this bird stays alive.

 

Author: Ben H.

Date Published: 02/2014

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Sources:

Hirshfield, Eric Andy Swash.  The World’s Rarest Birds. 

Author(s) Unknown.  “Helmeted Curassow Pauxi pauxi.”  BirdLife International.  2 February 2014.   5 February 2014.   http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/speciesfactsheet.php?id=101

Author(s) Unknown.  “Helmeted Curassow.”  Wikipedia.  2 January 2014.  5 February 2014.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmeted_Curassow

Photo Credit:

Greg Hume http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NorthernHelmetedCurassow02.jpg