Latest update February 14th, 2025 8:22 AM
The Great Tinamou
A Tinamou camouflaged in its habitat
The Great Tinamou (Tinamus major), also called Mountain hen is a species of tinamou ground bird native to Central and South America. There are several subspecies, mostly differentiated by their coloration.
Tinamous in general are a family comprising 47 species of birds. As one of the most ancient living groups of bird, they are related to the ratites. Generally ground dwelling, they are found in a range of habitats.
The Great Tinamou in particular is approximately 44 centimeters (17 inches) long, 1.1 kilogram (2.4 lb) in weight and size and is the shape of a small turkey.
It ranges from light to dark olive-brown in colour with a whitish throat and belly, flanks are barred black and its under-tail is cinnamon colour.
Its crown and neck rufous, occipital crest are all supercilium blackish while its legs are blue-grey in colour. All these features enable Great Tinamou to be well-camouflaged in the rainforest understory.
The Great Tinamou has a distinctive call, three short, tremulous, but powerful piping notes which can be heard in its rainforest habitat in the early evenings. All tinamou are from the family Tinamidae, and in the larger scheme are also ratites.
Unlike other ratites, Tinamous can fly, although in general, they are not strong fliers. All ratites evolved from prehistoric flying birds, and Tinamous are the closest living relative of these birds.
The female of this bird species 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 three weeks before moving on to find another female.
Meanwhile, the female opts to leave clutches of eggs with other males. In fact it is not unusual for a female to start nests with five or six males during each breeding season, leaving all parental care to the males.
The breeding season is long and could last for several months. The eggs are large, shiny, and bright blue or violet in colour and are placed in nests that 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. They are especially fond of Lauraceae, annonaceae, myrtaceae, sapotaceae.
This intriguing bird species is said to live in subtropical and tropical forest such as rainforest, lowland evergreen forest, river-edge forest, swamp forest and cloud forest at altitudes from 300–1,500 metres (1,000–4,900 ft).
Unlike some other tinamous, the great tinamou, is not as affected by forest fragmentation. Its nest can be found at the base of a tree.
This species is widespread throughout its large range (6,600,000 km2 (2,550,000 sq mi)), thus the Great Tinamou is evaluated as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as they are hunted with no major effect on their population.
(Source: Wikipedia – The Free Online Encylopedia)
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
Protest electoral tyranny
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- There comes a time in the life of a nation when silence is no longer an option, when the... more
OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus
Antiguan Barbudan Ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- The upcoming election... more
Weekend Cartoon
