TRINIDAD PIPING-GUAN (Pipile pipile)

07 January 2007 - Summit of Blancheusse Road, Trinidad This is a large and spectacular bird about the size of a Turkey. Clements 5th edition splits this bird from the Common Piping-Guan of South America and such a split is supported by the work by Grau et al. (2005) who place it in the genus Aburria. This species is rarely seen and critically endangered. My first edition of ffrench's field guide is very pessimistic about its future and predicts its almost certain extinction due to continued illegal hunting. Currently a few small populations persist, but the total population is estimated at no more than 70-200 birds. For more information see the IUCN Red List: http://www.iucnredlist.org/sear ch/details.php/17309/all We were very lucky to see it at the summit of Blancheusse Road, which is quite accessible. A more reliable place is said to be the Grande Riveire, but getting there is not easy. The wind was blowing strongly, and my photos suffer from some motion blur. The branch the bird was on was waving in the wind. But I was very excited to get a recognizable picture of this rarity. Reference: Grau, Erwin T.; Pereira, Sérgio Luiz; Silveira, Luís Fábio; Höfling, Elizabeth & Wanjtal, Anita (2005): Molecular phylogenetics and biogeography of Neotropical piping guans (Aves: Galliformes): Pipile Bonaparte, 1856 is synonym of Aburria Reichenbach, 1853. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 35: 637-645. A PDF of this paper is available at: http://individual.utoronto.ca/ser giolp/pdf/MPE2005.pdf Olympus D-550z / Nikon FieldScope 3 / 30XWA (hand-held - no adapter).