Blue-throated Piping-Guan

The blue-throated piping-guan is 60–69cm long, with a long neck and a long tail and a disproportionately thin, small head. The sexes look alike. Most of the plumage is blackish with a greenish-blue gloss that is strongest on the shoulders, wings and tail. The forehead, crown and nape are white, the outer wing coverts are white and form a large patch on the folded wing, and the inner coverts have white spots. The eye is dark reddish-brown and set in white to cobalt-blue bare skin. The bill is pale blue with a black tip, or black with a pinkish and blue base, and the legs are reddish. It weighs about 970–1350g and averages about 1.2kg (Wikipedia, general species account; AVONET, Tobias et al. 2022).

It is thought to be mostly sedentary, though it may make local or altitudinal moves as fruit becomes available (Wikipedia, general species account). Its diet is mostly fruit, especially figs, and leaves. It forages in or just below the canopy and sometimes on the ground under a fruiting tree, and it also eats earth (Wikipedia, general species account). Outside the nesting season it may gather in flocks of up to about 30 birds, especially at salt licks. The breeding season runs from August to possibly April, in the local wet season. Its twig nest, placed high in the dense canopy, holds one to three eggs, and incubation, known only from captive birds, lasts 24–28 days (Wikipedia, general species account). It is vocal mostly in the breeding season, giving a flight display of wing claps followed by slow, rising whistles at dawn and dusk. It is hunted for food and kept in captivity, and habitat destruction, mainly for agriculture, affects it in places (Wikipedia, general species account).