Crested guan
The crested guan is a Near Threatened species in an ancient group of birds of the family Cracidae, which are related to the Australasian megapodes or mound builders. It is found from central Mexico through Central America and in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
The crested guan has three subspecies, the nominate P. p. purpurascens, P. p. aequatorialis, and P. p. brunnescens.Description
The crested guan is long and weighs about. Among standard measurements, its wing chord is, its tail is, and its tarsus is. It is similar in general appearance to a turkey, with a small head, long strong legs, and a long broad tail. The sexes are similar. Adults of the nominate subspecies are mostly dusky olive brown and have a faint greenish or purplish iridescence. Their belly and crissum are chestnut and the breast and belly feathers have white edges. Their throat has some bristles and its loose skin dangles as a small red wattle. Juveniles resemble adults but overall mottled with blackish brown and with a rufous brown wash on the wing and tail feathers. Both sexes have a red iris, a blackish bill, slaty black bare skin on their face, and red legs and feet. Subspecies P. p. aequatorialis is similar to the nominate, but smaller and more rufescent. Subspecies P. p. brunnescens is more rufescent than the nominate but less so than aequatorialis.Distribution and habitat
The nominate subspecies of the crested guan is the northernmost. It is found in Mexico from Sinaloa in the west and southern Tamaulipas in the east and south along the Pacific and Caribbean slopes through Belize and Guatemala into El Salvador and Honduras. Subspecies P. p. aequatorialis is found across much of Nicaragua and south through Costa Rica, Panama, western Colombia, and western Ecuador into far northwestern Peru. Subspecies P. p. brunnescens is found in the Serranía del Perijá where northeastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela meet, east around Lake Maracaibo, and also in the Venezuelan Coastal Ranges intermittenly from Falcón to Delta Amacuro.The crested guan inhabits a variety of forested landscapes including tropical and subtropical evergreen and deciduous forest, cloudforest, gallery forest, and evergreen montane forest. Most are semi-humid to humid though it occurs locally in drier forest as well. In elevation it is found from sea level to in northern Central America, to in Costa Rica, to in Colombia and Ecuador, to in Peru, and to in Venezuela.