Nombre en español: Paujil Culiblanco

Nombre en inglés: Salvin’s Curassow

Nombre científico: Mitu salvini

Familia: Cracidae

El pavón nagüiblanco (Mitu salvini), también conocido como paujil de Salvin y paují culiblanco​ (Perú), es una especie de ave galliforme de la familia Cracidae que se encuentra en los bosques húmedos desde la Serranía de la Macarena hasta el sur de Colombia, el este de Ecuador y el noreste del Perú, hasta los 600 msnm. No se conocen subespecies.

Este pavón presenta un área de distribución geográfica bastante restringida en donde además enfrenta fuertes presiones por cacería. Su nombre Mitu proviene de los nombres tupíes Mitú, Mutú o Mutúm con los cuales se designaba a los pavones. El epíteto salvini se estableció como reconocimiento al trabajo de Osbert Salvin ornitólogo inglés y curador de la colección ornitológica de la universidad de Cambridge desde 1874 a 1882.

Características

Mide en promedio 89 cm de longitud. El color del plumaje es negro azulado brillante con los costados, el vientre y la punta de la cola blancos. Copete desarrollado. El pico es rojo o anaranjado, muy arqueado y comprimido, las patas son rojizas.

Tamaño y Forma

Mide de 75 a 89 cm. Presenta patas y pico de color naranja rojizo con la mandíbula superior profundamente comprimida y fuertemente arqueada. Es un ave principalmente negra con cresta bien desarrollada pero generalmente deprimida, tiene manto y pecho con lustre azuloso, vientre, infracaudales y amplia banda caudal terminal de color blanco.

Especies Similares

Se diferencia de otros pavones en su areal por combinación de vientre y banda caudal apical blancos. El Pavón Negro (Crax alector) y el Pavón Moquirrojo (Crax globulosa) tienen cola totalmente negra. El Pavón Naguirrojo (Mitu tomentosum) tiene el vientre, infracaudales y banda caudal terminal castaños. El Pavón Picodehacha (Mitu mitu) tiene vientre, tibias e infracaudales de color castaño y amplia banda caudal terminal blanca.

Diferencias Regionales

Es considerada como una especie monotípica.

Distribución

Se encuentra en el sur de Colombia, oriente de Ecuador y nororiente de Perú. En Colombia se distribuye por debajo de 600 m de altura sobre el nivel del mar al oriente de los Andes desde el sur de los departamentos de Meta y occidente Caquetá hacia el oriente hasta centro de Amazonas.

Habitat

Habita en selva húmeda de terra firme y várzea. En un estudio realizado en la Serranía de la Macarena se encontró que utilizó principalmente bosques inundados de terrenos planos con sotobosque cubierto principalmente por distintas especies de del género Heliconia. Frecuentemente también utilizó bosques maduros, claros de bosque y con menor frecuencia bosques degradados. 

Alimentación

Su dieta es a base de frutos y semillas que obtiene en el suelo. En su dieta también incluye hojas y flores como las de la especie Carludovica palmata (Cyclanthaceae), artrópodos y porciones de suelo. Entre los frutos de los cuales se alimenta se han registrado los de las especies Geophila repens (Rubiaceae), Ficus sphenophylla (Moraceae), Cupania cinerea, Talisia intermedia (Sapindaceae), Guarea Guidonia (Meliaceae), Pseudolmedia laevis (Moraceae), P. laevigata (Moraceae), Pourouma bicolor (Urticaceae), Castilla ulei (M;oraceae), Perebea exanthochyma, P. mollis, Clarisia racemosa (Moraceae), Protium sagotianum (Burseraceae), Couroupita guianensis (Lecythidaceae) e Inga tenuistipula (Mimosaceae). 

Reproducción

El tamaño de su postura es de dos huevos. Otros aspectos de su biología reproductiva permanecen sin ser documentados. 

Comportamiento

Al parecer permanece en parejas durante todo el año. Es un ave que se alimenta principalmente en el suelo, descansa y pasa la noche en ramas de árboles bajos. En ocasiones ingiere porciones de suelo, el cual probablemente, almacena en su molleja y sirve de ayuda para triturar las semillas ingeridas. También ha sido observada ingiriendo semillas y pequeñas plántulas que crecen de semillas deyectadas junto con las heces de monos. De estas observaciones se ha inferido que esta especie es principalmente un depredador de semillas grandes (>5mm largo) y un dispersor de semillas pequeñas (<5mm largo).Canta principalmente durante al amanecer y su voz es un fragor o murmullo fuerte cronc, cronc, cronc. 

Taxonomía

Algunos autores consideran que todas las especies del género Mitu forman una superespecie, las cuales han llegado a ser clasificados en los géneros Nothocrax, Pauxi y Crax. Se ha reportado que es marginalmente simpátrica con Mitu tuberosum en algunas localidades en Perú. 

Estado de conservación

Es considerada como una especie en estado de preocupación menor.

Historia natural

Se alimentan de frutos caídos y semillas, en pareja, solitarios o en grupos pequeños. Son de hábitos terrestres.

Salvin’s curassow

Salvin’s curassow (Mitu salvini) is a species of bird in the family Cracidae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest.

A prized game bird, the Salvin’s curassow is declining throughout the human-inhabited areas of its range, which also includes Colombia and eastern Ecuador. But the turkey-size bird seems to be doing well in areas without hunting pressures.

Salvin’s Curassow is rare and local throughout its range in the lowland forest of eastern Ecuador and bordering Perú and Colombia. They are extensively hunted, so are largely restricted to very remote areas. Salvin’s Curassow is the curassow that is most likely to be seen in their range; there is geographic overlap with Nocturnal Curassow (Nothocrax urumutum), which is frequently heard but seen only very rarely, and with Wattled Curassow (Crax globulosa), which is a rare and threatened species. Compared to similar-looking curassows, note the distinctive white on the tail tip, in addition to the short crest feathers and white belly. Often seen in pairs, they feed on the ground, though roost and rest low in trees. They occur in both terra firme and várzea, and seem to prefer areas near water. Their song is primarily given in the early dawn, and is a series of low, drawn out, resonating notes.

Identification

75–89 cm; 3100 g. Bill  deep and laterally compressed, larger than M. tomentosum but not massive. Well-developed crest usually carried depressed. Plumage less glossy than that of M. tuberosum. Only Mitu with white abdomen; chestnut in M. tomentosum. Juvenile is largely like adult, but has brown (not wine red) iris until almost one-year-old.

Systematics History

All members of this genus have been placed, together with the members of Pauxi, and less often Nothocrax, in Crax. Genetic data suggest that present species is most closely related to M. tuberosum and Pauxi unicornis; reported as marginally sympatric with M. tuberosum at some localities in Peru. Range meets that of M. tomentosum in C Colombia, but without any evidence of interbreeding. Monotypic.

Distribution

SC Colombia (S from S Meta and W Caquetá), E Ecuador and NE Peru (in Amazonas and Loreto).

Habitat

Humid terra firme forest  on plateaux and ridges, and riparian successional vegetation, but also seasonally flooded várzea (in which habitat the species nests in Colombia and Ecuador). There is apparently some seasonal shifts in habitat use, based on fruit availability, inhabiting mainly várzea in Jan and May–Jun, while terra firme forest is favoured during early wet season, in Mar–Apr. Usually in primary forest with level or slightly undulating relief; occurs in lowlands, up to 600 m in Colombia and to c. 400 m in Ecuador, although historically known to 700–900 m.

Movement

No information available; presumably sedentary. Studies of an habituated pair in Tinigua National Park, Colombia, revealed that they travelled 630–3750 m per day, with a home range of 72–150 ha (the variation being explained by the fact that territories shift, especially seasonally, in response to feeding conditions and possibly other factors). During periods of greatest fruit abundance (Jan–Jun in this region), the pair proved highly mobile, but birds were much more sedentary in Aug–Dec when many fewer canopy trees were fruiting, and the pair might remain up to 20 consecutive days in the vicinity of single tree.

Diet and Foraging

Mainly fallen fruits and seeds, but apparently has rather broad overall diet comprising in adults 70% fruits, 10% seeds and 20% other items (including flowers, leaves, invertebrates, cotyledons and vertebrates), but young may initially take larger proportion of vertebrates and invertebrates (24–38%) and smaller percentage of fruits (16–26%), and considerable daily or seasonal fluctuations can also occur in adult intake. Observed scavenging animal remains, in Macarena Mts, Colombia, and another Colombian study revealed that M. salvini consumes parts of 123 plant species belonging to 41 families (with Moraceae and Rubiaceae particularly well represented), of which 106 species were taken as fruits, 21 as seeds, seven as cotyledons, 19 as flowers and nine as leaves. Among invertebrates recorded as being taken during same study were worms, crabs, termites, snails and beetles, while vertebrates included frogs, snakes, rats and birds’ eggs and chicks (pigeons, thrushes and hummingbirds). Some grit, coarse sand or small stones are also ingested to aid digestion of seeds; overall, species is considered to be largely a seed-predator, rather than a significant disperser of seeds, with exceptions, e.g. the várzea tree Geophila repens (Rubiaceae). Forages singly, in pairs or small family groups, mainly on ground, but roost sites (which are changed frequently, sometimes nightly) are usually 15–25 m above ground.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Song can be repeated for periods of up to 30 minutes, usually from an elevated perch and mainly at dawn or at night, less frequently at other times of day : similar booming notes  to those of M. tuberosum, with less emphasis on final two notes, “mmm mmmMMMM … BMM’mmmm-mmmm” ; compared to Crax alector, song is higher-pitched and has different pattern. Female also sings, although less frequently, and the notes sound huskier and more guttural. Males sing most frequently during incubation period. Alarm note a “pieew, pieew” that is steadily repeated, or a more guttural “goorh, goorh” in threat, during which the tail feathers are spread; also a “coh coh” in contact or similar.

Breeding

During study in Macarena Mts, Colombia, birds seen to associate in pairs year-round, and appear to have overlapping home ranges with loose territoriality. Season Jan–May/Jun in Tinigua National Park, Colombia, with copulation in Feb and male building multiple nests between early Jan and late Feb, from which female selected one; all nests were 5–7 m above ground, but only those in várzea were ever used by female. If first nest fails, female may re-lay in a different nest. Lays two white eggs, size 57·25 mm × 82 mm; incubation c. 32 days by female alone, with off-bouts lasting up to c. 2 hours; chicks leave nest shortly after hatching and are brownish above, much paler below, with two narrow, very distinct black-edged dark lateral crown-stripes; very similar to those of M. tuberosum; after three months plumage is mainly black, but iris only as adult when c. 10 months old. Chicks capable of self-feeding at c. 15 days-old, although female continues to care for them for several months, and subsequently the male assists.

Conservation Status

Not globally threatened (Least Concern). Few records from Colombia, although apparently occurs regularly in areas well away from human settlements; fairly common in Macarena National Park. In Amazonian Ecuador, present throughout region, but in low numbers: a density of 3·8 birds/km² has been estimated in terra firme forest with low hunting pressure, whereas in forest with moderate hunting levels a density of only 1·6 birds/km² was calculated. In Peru, has declined around settlements, and reportedly rare near Iquitos, but fairly common in other areas and hunting is almost certainly a more important factor in species’ decline than habitat destruction in this region; disappeared from around a densely populated area along R Napo, but survives, with healthy densities, 10–20 km back from river. Actively hunted for local food consumption, and recorded for sale at market in Iquitos. Habitat destruction significant only locally. Uncommon in captivity, but has been bred in a few collections.

Fuentes: Wikipedia/eBird/xeno-canto/WikiAves/Birds of the world