Grounded

The Red-legged Seriema, Cariama cristata, is a delicate ground bird, about three feet high, with pink legs and beak, pale blue eye-shadow and a crest on the bridge of its nose (well, beak). Sort of like a punk mustache.

It wanders around the grasslands feeding on insects, small snakes, even mice and also grains and seeds. When it finds a snake, it kills it by shaking it hard and beating it on the ground.

It is often with its mate:

Occasionally they are in larger groups, like these. The local people say that if one stands on a termite mound, rain is coming.

They do not seem to be endangered, though they are sparse, but they are found across a large area in the grasslands south of the Amazon, from E. Bolivia to the Atlantic. Their habitat may even be increasing, as deforestation creates more of the open areas they like.

Among the large ground birds we saw, my other top favorite is the Bare-faced Curassow, Crax fasciolata, winner of the “Best Hairdo in the Pantanal” contest. Here is the male:

and here is his girlfriend:

The male is up to 85cm long and weighs as much as 2.8Kg, like a big chicken or a very small turkey. They eat mainly fruit, and seeds.

They are probably monogamous, but very little is known about their social lives. Classified as Vulnerable, the Pantanal is one place where they are still fairly common.