White-throated Tinamou Tinamus guttatus Scientific name definitions

The smallest member of the genus, White-throated Tinamou is distinguished by its having the loudest voice, a melancholic, usually disyllabic oooo-oooo? ooo-ooo?. The white throat, which defines the species’ English name, is in fact shared by several other species of the larger tinamous, and White-throated Tinamou is probably best separated from congenerics by the clear buff spotting on the wing coverts and back. In some areas the species is one of the commonest of its family. This tinamou occurs across much of Amazonia, from southern Venezuela and southeast Colombia to southeast Peru and northern Bolivia, and while predominantly tied to lowland terra firme forests, in Peru it ascends to 1100 m. Like most tinamous, its biology is not well known but its lays 5–6 eggs, and feeds mainly on seeds with at least some small animal prey also recorded.

32–36 cm; male 623–652 g, female 680–800 g. Generally drab to brown with mottled back and wings. Has forehead and crown mostly grey, becoming mottled buff and blackish on side of head to upper neck and on nape, nape with long feathers forming mane or short crest  , anterior face mottled but often greyer; lower neck  uniformly olive-brown to brown, becoming mottled with pale buff and blackish spots or chevrons on upperparts and upperwing , the uppertail-coverts often plainer, and barring usually boldest on outer webs of secondaries; throat paler, often mostly whitish in centre, underbody lighter than upperparts and sometimes with tawny tinge, some greyish vermiculation on breast, wavy brownish and buffy barring on thighs and flanks; belly palest, often creamy white, undertail-coverts chestnut-rufous with fuscous markings; iris blackish; bill mostly blackish-brown, largely horn-coloured lower mandible; legs grey to olive. Sexes similar in plumage, female larger than male. Immature is similar to adult, with heavier pale spotting on upperparts.

SE Colombia (Caquetá and Putumayo) and S Venezuela (W Amazonas) S, E of Andes, to N Bolivia and E to N Brazil (N Pará and NW Maranhão).

Primary tropical rainforest  , typically in terra firme; to 500 m.

Presumably sedentary.

Diet mostly seeds, also some invertebrates; two stomachs from Brazil yielded 150 ants (Formicidae), 18 seeds and some fine sand. Often forages in pairs; also solitary.

Long, mournful hoot , “ooo” or “ooo ooo” , up to c. 3 seconds in duration; sometimes a long note followed by a shorter one.

Little information available. Season Mar–Apr in N of range (upper Orinoco area) and Aug–Oct in S. Clutch 5–6 turquoise eggs.

Not globally threatened. Currently considered Near Threatened. Uplisted from Least Concern in 2012: based on a model of future deforestation in the Amazon basin (1 Soares-Filho, B. S., D. C. Nepstad, L. M. Curran, G. C. Cerqueira, R. A. Garcia, C. A. Ramos, E. Voll, A. McDonald, P. Lefebvre, and P. Schlesinger (2006). Modelling conservation in the Amazon Basin. Nature 440:520–523. Close ), and the sensitivity of this species to hunting, its population is projected to decline significantly over the next two decades (2 Bird, J. P., J. M. Buchanan, A. C. Lees, R. P. Clay, P. F. Develey, I. Yépez, and S. H. M. Butchart (2011). Integrating spatially explicit habitat projections into extinction risk assessments: a reassessment of Amazonian avifauna incorporating projected deforestation. Diversity and Distributions 18(3):432–439. Close ). Through better knowledge of vocalizations, now know to be fairly common in places, though avoids contact with humans. However, inhabits primary forest and, unlike some other tinamous, intolerant of disturbed or secondary forest.