Variable Chachalaca - BirdForum Opus

Alternative name: Little Chachalaca

Photo by Valéry Schollaert
Manaus, Brazil

Identification

43-58 cm (probably mostly in upper end of this range).
It has a chestnut head, a red dewlap and brown wings. Outer tail is reddish brown.

Variable Chachalaca and Chestnut-headed Chachalaca are nearly identical in plumage pattern but differ strongly in size and somewhat in voice^[5].

Amazonian Brazil (mostly north of the Amazon), French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana, and southern Venezuela.

Photo by erikat
Near AdeK University campus, Uitvlucht (Paramaribo), Suriname (click on image for larger version)

This is a monotypic species^[1].

Clearings and forest patches with dense undergrowth

It feeds on fruit and berries both on the ground and in the trees.

Most likely to be vocal just before dawn (5:30-6 am). Skulking behavior makes this species difficult to see.

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Gill, F, D Donsker, and P Rasmussen (Eds). 2021. IOC World Bird List (v 11.2). Doi 10.14344/IOC.ML.11.2. http://www.worldbirdnames.org/
Restall et al. 2006. Birds of Northern South America. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300124156
del Hoyo, J. and G. M. Kirwan (2021). Variable Chachalaca (Ortalis motmot), version 1.1. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.varcha1.01.1
Paper describing differences between Chestnut-headed Chachalaca and Variable Chachalaca

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.