English           -            Bare-faced Curassow

Portuguese    -            Mutum-de-penacho

Latin                -            Crax fasciolata

I guess I was lucky staying in a hotel that had so much birdlife within its grounds when we were staying in the Pantanal. Passo do Lontra Parque Hotel was the hotel and the Bare-faced Curassow was just one of the species that was a common sight within the grounds. They were quite approachable as long as you didn’t get up close and personal with them. They did tend to stick to the shaded parts of the grounds which is understandable as temperates were getting up to 37-38 degrees. Would have loved to photograph them in bright sunlight but none the less feel fortunate to have got reasonable close to them. I saw them most days I stayed at the hotel. Mainly in the morning as they were  foraging for food.

* The Bare-faced Curassow can get to lengths of up to 85 cm in length and weigh up to 2.8 kgs

* The male is mainly bluish / black with a mainly yellow beak.

* The female has mainly black  and white upper parts and pale buff under parts with an all black beak.

* The Bare-faced Curassow is found from eastern Amazonia south through central Brazil, Paraguay and northern Argentina.

* They frequents humid, semi-deciduous forest and gallery forest. They are often seen at woodland edges.

* They mainly forage for fruit that have fallen from trees onto the ground. They also eat seeds, flowers and invertebrates.

* The male Bare-faced Curassow gives low-pitched booming, similar to the sound produced by blowing across the mouth of an empty bottle. The female utters low-pitched notes, in order to maintain vocal contact with her mate.

* The female usually lays two eggs that are incubated for about 30 days. The chicks are precocial at hatching.

* The Bare-faced Curassow has a wide range and is fairly numerous in parts of its range, however it is subject to hunting and to the destruction of its habitat and the total population is likely to be declining quite rapidly. Therefore the Bare-faced Curassow is classified as ”vulnerable” on the IUCN red list.