Curassow (1 Viewer)

I was fly fishing in the Bolivian jungle a little over a week ago in the Isibole Secure National Park and I happened to see some turkey sized birds there. We were hiking up a small tributary of the drainage and saw these birds in the afternoon.

There appeared to be two of them and it was late afternoon. They scurried back into the underbrush so we just got a glimpse of a large black bird with some red on the head. Two days later we hiked the same area again and in the morning discovered two of the birds. That afternoon on our return, we encountered between 5 and 7 of them. One flew into a tree and provided the opportunity for some photos.

The manager of the lodge where we were staying thought these were one of the 50 rarest bird species in the world. He was very excited about this and said that he'd found another species that was not supposed to be in the jungle a couple of years before. The bird books have been changed in response to his reports.

When I arrived home I did some research and have learned that the rare bird in question is the Alagois Curassow, now extinct in the wild where it used to roam in eastern Brazil. However it is similar to the Razor-Billed Curassow. I'm pretty sure my specimens were the latter but am hoping some of you pros will be able to verify which of the two is in the photo.

Thanks

Hi 2thman and welcome to birdforum.

Your post would probably be better placed in the Identification Q and A section of Birdforum, where someone would surely be able to give you a definitive ID.

There are quite a few species of Curassow, and I don't know what the options are in Bolivia, but it certainly looks like a Razor-billed to me, as you suggested.

The Alagoas Curassow and the Razor-billed Curassow used to be thought of as different populations of the same species, but are now considered to be different species. Alagoas Curassow, as you say, is probably extinct in the wild, and used to live in NE Brazil.

Hope that's of some help,

cheers,

Larry

Agree, Razor-billed for me also.