Great Tinamou - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

All tinamous are from the family Tinamidae, and are the closest living relatives of the ratites. Unlike ratites, tinamous can fly, although in general, they are not strong fliers. All ratites evolved from prehistoric flying birds.

There are twelve sub-species

• T. m. percautus occurs in southeastern Mexico (Yucatan Peninsula), Belize, and Petén department in Guatemala.
• T. m. robustus occurs in the lowlands of southeastern Mexico, Guatemala, and northern Nicaragua.
• T. m. fuscipennis occurs in northern Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and western Panama.
• T. m. castaneiceps occurs in southwestern Costa Rica and western Panama.
• T. m. brunniventris occurs in south central Panama.
• T. m. saturatus occurs on Pacific slope of eastern Panama and northwestern Colombia.
• T. m. latifrons occurs in southwestern Colombia and western Ecuador.
• T. m. zuliensis occurs in northeastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela.
• T. m. major occurs in eastern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and northeastern Brazil.
• T. m. olivascens occurs in Brazilian Amazon.
• T. m. peruvianus occurs in southeastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, eastern Bolivia, western Brazil, and eastern Peru.
• T. m. serratus occurs in extreme southern Venezuela and northwestern Brazil

Johann Friedrich Gmelin identified the Great Tinamou from a specimen located in Cayenne, French Guyana, in 1789.