Dusky-legged Guan

The dusky-legged guan averages 73cm long and looks very like its smaller relative, the rusty-margined guan (Wikipedia, general species account). Evangelista-Vargas (2018) separates it from P. bridgesi, the form from south-western Bolivia and north-western Argentina. The upperparts are olive-brown with a green tinge, the overall colour is darker, the underparts vary more, and the white margins of the wing coverts are much reduced. Plumage shows no difference between the sexes (Evangelista-Vargas 2018).

It eats fruit, flowers and buds, taking them from the ground or plucking them from branches, and it disperses the seeds of various trees and palms, including Euterpe and Syagrus palms (Wikipedia, general species account). Its habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest. In early 2021 the former subspecies bridgesi, found in south-western Bolivia and north-western Argentina, was elevated to species rank as the Yungas guan, so the Bolivian population is no longer part of this species (Wikipedia, general species account).