Helmeted Curassow

The Helmeted Curassow or Northern Helmeted Curassow', (Pauxi pauxi) is a large terrestrial black curassow with a small head, large bluish grey casque on forehead, red bill, white-tipped tail feathers, greenish glossed mantle and breast feathers, and white below. Both sexes are similar. Length in adult birds can vary from 80 to 100 cm (31 to 39 in). The male, at 3.6 kg (8 lbs), is larger than the female, at 2.6 kg (5.8 lbs). Among standard measurements, the wing chord is 36.3 to 42.7 cm (14.3 to 16.8 in), the tail is 30.4 to 36.2 cm (12.0 to 14.3 in) and the tarsus is 8.9 to 11.2 cm (3.5 to 4.4 in). Some rare rufous morph female has a black barred and reddish brown plumage. For some time, it also contained the Horned Curassow taxa as subspecies. Nowadays its southern congener is considered a distinct species P. unicornis.

One of the largest birds in its habitat, the Helmeted Curassow is distributed in the eastern Andes of Venezuela and Colombia. The diet consists mainly of seeds, fruits, insects and small animals. The female lays two cream colored eggs and incubates it for about 30 days.

The Helmeted Curassow is listed on Appendix II of CITES. Formerly classified as an Vulnerable species by the IUCN, recent research shows that its numbers are decreasing more and more rapidly. It is consequently uplisted to Endangered status in 2008.