Great Curassow
Where and when to see the Great Curassow
DraftOn the Yucatán Peninsula
It walks the floor of tall and medium, well-preserved forest, mainly in the south of the peninsula such as Calakmul, and comes to aguadas and rock pools to drink. It also lives on Cozumel, as its own subspecies.
Where it’s reported most
We don’t name sites: this species is targeted by trapping or hunting.
When
All year · most reports Dec–Mar
Most reports from December to March.
Reports relative to effort
- January: 100%
- February: 88%
- March: 71%
- April: 63%
- May: 68%
- June: 96%
- July: 84%
- August: 50%
- September: 58%
- October: 51%
- November: 69%
- December: 100%
Data: eBird and other datasets via GBIF.org (CC BY 4.0), 2015–2026 · Base map: Natural Earth
Walks the forest floor. Large, slow to breed and easy to hunt, so where curassows are still common the forest around them is usually still intact.
- Identification
- A turkey-sized forest bird. The male is glossy black with a white belly, a curly crest and a round yellow knob on the bill. Females are brown or blackish with a black-and-white barred head and crest; in Mexico they come in barred and dark forms.
- Voice
- Its calls range from very deep, low booms to high-pitched yips, and it also gives a long, lingering whistle.
What the photo doesn’t show
DraftRed in name only
Linnaeus named the species rubra, “red”, from Albin’s plate of a “Red Peruvian Hen”. Some females elsewhere in its range are rufous, but none in Mexico. 1,2
A regular at the waterholes
In Calakmul, camera traps watched 64 water sources, from rock pools (sartenejas) and water-filled tree holes to aguadas, and recorded almost 40,000 videos. Of the 79 bird and mammal species that showed up, the Great Curassow and the White-tailed Deer were the most common. 3,4
The island curassow
Cozumel has its own subspecies, griscomi, smaller than the mainland birds and found nowhere else. An estimate from the 1990s put it at about 300 birds, and on the island hurricanes and introduced species are potential threats. 2,5
Gone where it’s hunted
Hunting and forest loss are its main threats. It vanishes quickly once logging roads open up a forest, but recovers where it isn’t hunted. 2
Sources
- Birds of the World (Cornell Lab): Great Curassow (opens in a new tab)
- BirdLife International, Data Zone: Great Curassow (opens in a new tab)
- Rufford Foundation: Calakmul water project update (2022) (opens in a new tab)
- Rufford Foundation: Water availability for wildlife in Calakmul (opens in a new tab)
- DOF, 14/11/2019: NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010, Anexo III (opens in a new tab)
Map and months: 862 records from 2015–2026 from eBird, iNaturalist, and others, via GBIF.org (CC BY 4.0), in 0.1° squares (about 10 km). eBird: doi.org/10.15468/aomfnb.
Months: the species’ records ÷ all bird records that month, scaled to the busiest month. It allows for birding effort; it is not the chance of seeing it. A blank square: few or no reports, not necessarily absent.
Tell us where, or ask how to find one.
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