Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Galliformes > Cracidae > Crax > Crax alector

Crax alector (Black Curassow)

Wikipedia Abstract

The black curassow (Crax alector), also known as the smooth-billed curassow and the crested curassow, is a species of bird in the Cracidae family, the chachalacas, guans, and curassows. It is found in humid forests in northern South America in Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas and far northern Brazil. Introduced to Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Lesser Antilles. It is the only Crax curassow where the male and female cannot be separated by plumage, as both are essentially black with a white crissum, and have a yellow (eastern part of its range) or orange-red (western part of its range) cere.
View Wikipedia Record: Crax alector

Infraspecies

Crax alector alector
Crax alector erythrognatha

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
1
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
33
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 3.63528
EDGE Score: 2.91999
Learn more at EDGE of Existence programme

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  6.826 lbs (3.096 kg)
Female Weight [3]  6.332 lbs (2.872 kg)
Male Weight [4]  7.275 lbs (3.30 kg)
Weight Dimorphism [4]  13.4 %
Diet [2]  Frugivore, Herbivore
Diet - Fruit [2]  90 %
Diet - Plants [2]  10 %
Forages - Understory [2]  20 %
Forages - Ground [2]  80 %
Clutch Size [5]  2
Incubation [4]  30 days
Snout to Vent Length [1]  35 inches (90 cm)

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
El Caura Forest Reserve VI 12722815 Venezuela  
Estación Biológica El Frío 57221 Venezuela  
Imataca Forest Reserve VI 13252422 Venezuela  
Maracá Ecological Reserve Ia 257554 Roraima, Brazil  
Ralleigh Falls - Voltzberg Nature Reserve 191114 Suriname  

Important Bird Areas

Prey / Diet

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Penelope marail (Marail Guan)2
Pionites melanocephalus (Black-headed Parrot)1
Psophia crepitans (Grey-winged Trumpeter)4
Threnetes leucurus (Pale-throated barbthroat)1
Tinamus major (Great Tinamou)1

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Lyperosomum direptum[7]

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 3Delacour, J. and Amadon, D. 1973. Curassows and Related Birds. American Museum of Natural History, New York
♦ 4del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
♦ 5Jetz W, Sekercioglu CH, Böhning-Gaese K (2008) The Worldwide Variation in Avian Clutch Size across Species and Space PLoS Biol 6(12): e303. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060303
♦ 6Erard C., Théry M., Sabatier Daniel. (1991). Régime alimentaire de Tinamus major (Tinamidae), Crax alector (Cracidae) et Psophia crepitans ((Psophiidae), en forêt guyanaise. Gibier Faune Sauvage, 8, 183-210.
♦ 7Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0