The Colombian Tinamou, Crypturellus erythropus columbianus, is a tinamou

Tinamou

The tinamous are a family comprising 47 species of birds found in Central and South America. One of the most ancient living groups of bird, they are related to the ratites. Generally ground dwelling, they are found in a range of habitats....

 found in Córdoba

Córdoba Department

Córdoba is a Department of the Republic of Colombia located to the north of this country in the Colombian Caribbean Region. Córdoba faces to the north with the Caribbean sea, to the northeast with the Sucre Department, east with the Bolívar Department and south with the Antioquia Department...

, Sucre

Sucre Department

Sucre is a department in the Caribbean Region of Colombia. The department ranks 27th by area, and it has a population of 772,010, ranking 20th of all the 32 departments of Colombia...

, Bolívar

Bolívar Department

Bolívar is a department of Colombia. It was named after one of the original nine states of the United States of Colombia. It is located to the north of the country, extending from the coast at Cartagena near the mouth of the Magdalena River, then south along the river to a border with Antioquia.Its...

, and Antioquia

Antioquia Department

Antioquia is one of the 32 departments of Colombia, located in the central northwestern part of Colombia with a narrow section that borders the Caribbean Sea. Most of its territory is mountainous with some valleys, much of which is part of the Andes mountain range...

 in north-central Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

. Little is known about it. It occurs in lowland moist forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

 and shrubland

Shrubland

Shrubland, scrubland, scrub or brush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity...

 at elevation

Elevation

The elevation of a geographic location is its height above a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface ....

 up to 600 m (1,968.5 ft).

It is sometimes treated as a distinct species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

, and sometimes as a subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 of the Red-legged Tinamou

Red-legged Tinamou

The Red-legged Tinamou or Red-footed Tinamou,Crypturellus erythropus, is a dumpy, ground-dwelling bird found in the tropics and lower subtropics of northern South America..-Description:...

. The SACC

American Ornithologists' Union

The American Ornithologists' Union is an ornithological organization in the USA. Unlike the National Audubon Society, its members are primarily professional ornithologists rather than amateur birders...

 rejected a proposal to elevate it to species status, arguing that the presently available data fail to support the split. BirdLife International

BirdLife International

BirdLife International is a global Partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity, working with people towards sustainability in the use of natural resources...

 followed this treatment; hence the Colombian Tinamou has been dropped from the 2007 IUCN Red List

IUCN Red List

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species , founded in 1963, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biological species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species...

..

Etymology

Crypturellus is formed from three Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 or Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 words. kruptos meaning covered or hidden, oura meaning tail, and ellus meaning diminutive. Therefore Crypturellus means small hidden tail.

Description

The Colombian Tinamou is approximately 30 cm (11.8 in) in length. It is a medium-sized brownish tinamou. It has a plain brown crown and white throat. Its upper parts are also plain brown with no barring, white notches in the secondaries and wing coverts. Its underparts are paler brown with dark barring near vent. The legs are pinkish-red in color. The Colombian Tinamou looks very similar to the Red-legged Tinamou

Red-legged Tinamou

The Red-legged Tinamou or Red-footed Tinamou,Crypturellus erythropus, is a dumpy, ground-dwelling bird found in the tropics and lower subtropics of northern South America..-Description:...

 (Crypturellus erythropus), however the Colombian Tinamou is darker and has stronger barring.

Status and conservation

It is threatened by deforestation

Deforestation

Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....

 of the lowlands forests om its range. In recent years, there has been a very rapid loss of habitat in the northern part of the Cordillera Central and the Serranía de San Lucas, where the remaining populations are concentrated. It was uplisted to Endangered

Endangered species

An endangered species is a population of organisms which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters...

 (EN A2c+3c) by the IUCN in 2004, after being assessed as Near Threatened

Near Threatened

Near Threatened is a conservation status assigned to species or lower taxa that may be considered threatened with extinction in the near future, although it does not currently qualify for the threatened status...

since 1988, but as mentioned above it is no longer included in the Red List, where instead considered a subspecies of the Red-legged Tinamou.

Currently no conservation measures are known. It has been proposed to survey to determine its precise distribution and ecological requirements, and find suitable habitat to protect these birds.