Ornate Tinamou

About the Ornate Tinamou

The ornate tinamou (Nothoprocta ornata) is a type of tinamou commonly found in the high altitude grassland and dry shrubland in subtropical and tropical regions of west central South America. Nothoprocta comes from two Greek words, nothos meaning spurious or counterfeit and prōktos meaning hindpart or tail. Experts are unsure, however, they believe that this refers to the hidden tail of this Genus behind body feathers.

All tinamou are from the family Tinamidae, and in the larger scheme are also ratites. Unlike other ratites, tinamous can fly, although in general, they are not strong fliers. All ratites evolved from prehistoric flying birds, and tinamous are the closest living relative of these birds.

Kalinowski's tinamou Nothoprocta kalinowskii was considered a separate species but further research has deemed it a junior synonym of Nothoprocta ornata branickii, and the SACC voted to do just that on 14 Feb 2007. The ornate tinamou has three subspecies as follows: N. o. ornata The nominate race occurs in the Andes of southeastern Peru, extreme northern Chile and western Bolivia

N. o. branickii occurs in the puna of central Peru; Ancash... Wikipedia →