Rufous-vented chachalaca (Ortalis ruficauda), Tobago Plantations
To continue our observations of the inland habitats of the Tobago Plantations: I have mentioned that strips of woodland have remained between the greens of the golf course. The rufous-vented chachalaca is essentially a woodland species.
This strange, turkey-like, gallinaceous bird has a world distribution almost entirely restricted to Venezuela -- and Tobago. (It is not found in neighbouring Trinidad.) On Tobago it is abundant; its loud, raucous, cackling "coc-eri-co, coc-eri-co!", sounding like an asthmatic with whooping cough, can be heard along the forest edges in the early morning and must disturb many a slumber on the island. Female answers male at a slightly higher pitch. With their large bodies, long tails and short wings, they hop clumsily from branch to branch in the trees, and seem ill-adapted for flight, although they are quite capable of it. An ungainly bird with an ungainly name.
230225 529
Rotsteißguan
Краснохвостая чачалака
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All images are the property of the photographer and may not be reproduced, copied, downloaded, transmitted or used in any way without the written permission of the photographer, who can be contacted by registering with flickr and using flickrmail.
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Rufous-vented chachalaca (Ortalis ruficauda), Tobago Plantations
To continue our observations of the inland habitats of the Tobago Plantations: I have mentioned that strips of woodland have remained between the greens of the golf course. The rufous-vented chachalaca is essentially a woodland species.
This strange, turkey-like, gallinaceous bird has a world distribution almost entirely restricted to Venezuela -- and Tobago. (It is not found in neighbouring Trinidad.) On Tobago it is abundant; its loud, raucous, cackling "coc-eri-co, coc-eri-co!", sounding like an asthmatic with whooping cough, can be heard along the forest edges in the early morning and must disturb many a slumber on the island. Female answers male at a slightly higher pitch. With their large bodies, long tails and short wings, they hop clumsily from branch to branch in the trees, and seem ill-adapted for flight, although they are quite capable of it. An ungainly bird with an ungainly name.
230225 529
Rotsteißguan
Краснохвостая чачалака
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All images are the property of the photographer and may not be reproduced, copied, downloaded, transmitted or used in any way without the written permission of the photographer, who can be contacted by registering with flickr and using flickrmail.
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