Black-fronted Piping-guan

Taxobox
name = Black-fronted Piping-guan
status = EN
status_system = iucn3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Galliformes
familia = Cracidae
genus = "Aburria"
species = "A. jacutinga"
binomial = "Aburria jacutinga"
binomial_authority = (Spix, 1825)
synonyms ="Penelope jacutinga" Spix, 1825"Pipile jacutinga" (Spix, 1825)

The Black-fronted Piping-guan, "Aburria jacutinga" (sometimes still called "Pipile jacutinga"), is a bird in the chachalaca, guan and curassow family Cracidae. This species occurs in southern Brazil and adjacent Argentina and Paraguay. It has become quite rare in recent decades due to hunting and habitat destruction (BirdLife International 2004).

It is a large bird, some 63-74 cm in length, and similar in general appearance to a slim turkey with thin neck and small head. "Aburria jacutinga" is mainly black with a bluish gloss; it has a conspicuous white wing patch bearing 3 neat rows of tiny black dots. The large crest is whitish, and it has a red throat wattle with a dark blue patch at the front. Its naked whitish eye-ring and black-feathered face and forehead are unique in its genus. The legs and feet are red.

The only piping-guan which also occurs in its range is Gray's Piping-guan ("Aburria cumanensis grayi") which barely reaches E Paraguay. This bird has a pale bluish pendulous wattle, a smaller wing patch, and an entirely naked white face and white forehead.

ystematics

Formerly, "Aburria jacutinga" was considered one of the two species of piping-guan, the other being the variable "Common Piping-guan". However, analysis of mtDNA, osteology and biogeography (Grau "et al.", 2005) did not only show that the Wattled Guan is an aberrant hypermelanistic piping-guan, but vindicated the hypothesis than many taxa of the "Common Piping-guan" were actually distinct species. The Black-fronted Piping-guan is apparently the most basal member of its genus, but its precise relationship with the Wattled Piping-guan is not fully resolved (Grau "et al." 2005).

References

* Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is endangered and the criteria used

* Grau, Erwin T.; Pereira, Sérgio Luiz; Silveira, Luís Fábio; Höfling, Elizabeth & Wanjtal, Anita (2005): Molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of Neotropical piping guans (Aves: Galliformes): "Pipile" Bonaparte, 1856 is synonym of "Aburria" Reichenbach, 1853. "Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution" 35: 637-645. doi|doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2004.12.004 [http://individual.utoronto.ca/sergiolp/pdf/MPE2005.pdf PDF fulltext]

External links

* [http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=90&m=0 BirdLife Species Factsheet.]
*ARKive: [http://www.arkive.org/species/GES/birds/Pipile_jacutinga/ Images and movies of the Black-fronted Piping-guan ("Aburria jacutinga")] . Retrieved 2007-FEB-26.