Cauca Guan

About the Cauca Guan

The Cauca guan (Penelope perspicax) is a bird in the chachalaca, guan and curassow family, Cracidae. It is a large guan, and like most guans leads a mostly arboreal life in humid forests, where it forages for fruit and leaves. The Cauca guan is endemic to Colombia's Cauca River valley.

In Spanish the bird is called pava caucana. The bird was first formally described in 1911 by the American ornithologist Outram Bangs, based on the type specimen collected on 5 June 1908 by Mervin G. Palmer at San Luis in the Bitaco Valley of western Colombia. All four of the major taxonomic authorities recognize Cauca guan as a species.

The genus name Penelope derives from the Ancient Greek penelops - a type of duck which was said to have rescued Penelope after she was thrown into the sea. The species epithet perspicax is Latin for sharp-sighted. The species is monotypic - no subspecies are recognized.

These are large birds, measuring c.75–85 cm in length, with the typical plump body, long tail and small head of the Cracidae species. The head, neck and mantle of the Cauca guan are dark grey, blending into the reddish chestnut colour of the rump, scapulars... Wikipedia →