Razor-billed Curassow (Mitu tuberosum)

Identification & Behavior: ~86 cm (34 in).  The Razor-billed Curassow is a turkey-like bird with an all-black plumage with iridescent bluish feathers and velvety black upper neck and head.  Males and females are similar having a terminal white tail band, chestnut lower belly and vent areas, and a bright red bill with the culmen highly elongated and shaped into a sharp ridge. Males have larger bill formation than females.  Very similar to Salvin’s Curassow, but these curassows replace each other geographically with Razor-billed Curassow restricted to the south side of the Amazon and Marañon Rivers and Salvin’s Curassow to the north of the Amazon and Marañon Rivers.

Status:  The Razor-billed Curassow favors floodplain forest where is now rare due to subsistence hunting pressure from human settlements also located in floodplain forests.

Name in Spanish: Paujil Común.

Sub-species: Razor-billed Curassow (Mitu tuberosum) (Spix, 1825).

Meaning of Name: Mitu: Tupi (Native Brazilian) Mitu, Mutu, or mutum= big black bird. tuberosa: L. Full of lumps, or swellings..

See more of the Family Cracidae