Seriema
Encyclopedia
The seriemas are the sole extant members of the small and ancient family Cariamidae, which is also the sole surviving family of the Cariamae
. Once believed to be related to cranes
, they have been placed by one recent study near the falcon
s, parrot
s and passerine
s, as well as the extinct terror birds. There are two species:
They give loud, yelping calls and are often heard before they are seen.
. They feed on insect
s, snake
s, lizard
s, frog
s, young bird
s, and rodent
s, with small amounts of plant food (including maize
and bean
s). They often associate with grazing livestock
, probably to take insects the animals disturb. When seriemas catch small reptile
s, they beat the prey on the ground (Redford and Peters 1986) or throw it at a hard surface to break resistance and also the bones. If the prey is too large to swallow whole, it will be ripped into smaller pieces with a sickle claw (pictured below) reminiscent of those in deinonychosaurs
like Velociraptor
and Troodon
by holding the prey in the beak and tearing it apart with the claw.
. They lay two or three white or buff eggs
sparsely spotted with brown and purple. The female does most of the incubation, which last from 24 to 30 days. Hatchlings are downy but stay in the nest for about two weeks; then they jump down and follow both parents. They reach full maturity at the age of four to five months.
to ward off predators.
s, which are known from fossil
s from South and North America. Several other related groups, such as the idiornithids and bathornithids were part of Palaeogene faunas in North America
and Europe
and possibly elsewhere too. However, the fossil record of the seriemas themselves is not good, with a single prehistoric species (Chunga incerta) having been described to date. Some of the fossils from the Eocene
fauna of the Messel Pit
(i.e. Salimia and Idiornis) have also been suggested to be seriemas, though their status remains uncertain.
The seriemas have an extensible second claw that is raised from the ground. This resembles the "sickle claw" of Velociraptor
and its relatives
.
are siriema, sariama, çariama, which are explained as meaning "crested" (New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary).
Cariamae
Cariamae is a suggested name for a group of primarily flightless birds that have been around for 63 million years. The group includes the families Cariamidae, Phorusrhacidae, Bathornithidae, Idiornithidae and Ameghinornithidae...
. Once believed to be related to cranes
Crane (bird)
Cranes are a family, Gruidae, of large, long-legged and long-necked birds in the order Gruiformes. There are fifteen species of crane in four genera. Unlike the similar-looking but unrelated herons, cranes fly with necks outstretched, not pulled back...
, they have been placed by one recent study near the falcon
Falcon
A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....
s, parrot
Parrot
Parrots, also known as psittacines , are birds of the roughly 372 species in 86 genera that make up the order Psittaciformes, found in most tropical and subtropical regions. The order is subdivided into three families: the Psittacidae , the Cacatuidae and the Strigopidae...
s and passerine
Passerine
A passerine is a bird of the order Passeriformes, which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines form one of the most diverse terrestrial vertebrate orders: with over 5,000 identified species, it has roughly...
s, as well as the extinct terror birds. There are two species:
- Red-legged SeriemaRed-legged SeriemaThe Red-legged Seriema or Crested Cariama is a mostly predatory terrestrial bird in the seriema family , included in the "Gruiformes" in the old paraphyletic circumscription, but increasingly placed in a distinct order Cariamae...
, or Crested Cariama, Cariama cristata. This is found from eastern BrazilBrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
, to central ArgentinaArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. It is bigger and nests on the ground or in a bush or tree up to 3 m (9.8 ft) above the ground. - Black-legged SeriemaBlack-legged SeriemaThe Black-legged Seriema is one of two species of seriemas in the Cariamidae family. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests and subtropical or tropical dry shrubland.-External links:* VIREO...
, Chunga burmeisteri. This is found in northwest Argentina and ParaguayParaguayParaguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
. It nests in a tree.
Description
Both species are around 80 cm (31.5 in) long; the Red-legged Seriema is slightly bigger than the Black-legged. They forage on foot and run from danger rather than fly (though they can fly for short distances, and they roost in trees). They have long legs, necks, and tails, but only short wings, reflecting their way of life. They are brownish birds with short bills and erectile crests, found on fairly dry open country, the Red-legged Seriema preferring grasslands and the Black-legged Seriema preferring scrub and open woodland.They give loud, yelping calls and are often heard before they are seen.
Diet
Ecologically they are the South American counterpart of the Secretary BirdSecretary Bird
The Secretarybird or Secretary Bird is a large, mostly terrestrial bird of prey. Endemic to Africa, it is usually found in the open grasslands and savannah of the sub-Sahara...
. They feed on insect
Insect
Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...
s, snake
Snake
Snakes are elongate, legless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes that can be distinguished from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears. Like all squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales...
s, lizard
Lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with nearly 3800 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica as well as most oceanic island chains...
s, frog
Frog
Frogs are amphibians in the order Anura , formerly referred to as Salientia . Most frogs are characterized by a short body, webbed digits , protruding eyes and the absence of a tail...
s, young bird
Bird
Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...
s, and rodent
Rodent
Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....
s, with small amounts of plant food (including maize
Maize
Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...
and bean
Bean
Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed....
s). They often associate with grazing livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
, probably to take insects the animals disturb. When seriemas catch small reptile
Reptile
Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors...
s, they beat the prey on the ground (Redford and Peters 1986) or throw it at a hard surface to break resistance and also the bones. If the prey is too large to swallow whole, it will be ripped into smaller pieces with a sickle claw (pictured below) reminiscent of those in deinonychosaurs
Deinonychosauria
The Deinonychosauria were a clade of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. These omnivores and carnivores are known for their switchblade-like second toe claws and for displaying numerous bird-like characteristics. The clade has been divided into two...
like Velociraptor
Velociraptor
Velociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 75 to 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V. mongoliensis; fossils...
and Troodon
Troodon
Troodon is a genus of relatively small, bird-like dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous period . Discovered in 1855, it was among the first dinosaurs found in North America...
by holding the prey in the beak and tearing it apart with the claw.
Reproduction
Seriemas build bulky stick nestsBird nest
A bird nest is the spot in which a bird lays and incubates its eggs and raises its young. Although the term popularly refers to a specific structure made by the bird itself—such as the grassy cup nest of the American Robin or Eurasian Blackbird, or the elaborately woven hanging nest of the...
. They lay two or three white or buff eggs
Egg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
sparsely spotted with brown and purple. The female does most of the incubation, which last from 24 to 30 days. Hatchlings are downy but stay in the nest for about two weeks; then they jump down and follow both parents. They reach full maturity at the age of four to five months.
Relationship with humans
People sometimes capture young seriemas and tame them, keeping them with poultryPoultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...
to ward off predators.
Prehistoric relatives
The two extant species of seriema are thought to be the closest living relatives of a group of gigantic (up to 10 ft (3 m) tall) carnivorous "terror birds", the phorusrhacidPhorusrhacidae
Phorusrhacids , colloquially known as "terror birds" as the larger species were apex predators during the Miocene, were a clade of large carnivorous flightless birds that were the dominant predators in South America during the Cenozoic, 62–2 million years ago. They were roughly 1–3 meters tall...
s, which are known from fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s from South and North America. Several other related groups, such as the idiornithids and bathornithids were part of Palaeogene faunas in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and possibly elsewhere too. However, the fossil record of the seriemas themselves is not good, with a single prehistoric species (Chunga incerta) having been described to date. Some of the fossils from the Eocene
Eocene
The Eocene Epoch, lasting from about 56 to 34 million years ago , is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Eocene spans the time from the end of the Palaeocene Epoch to the beginning of the Oligocene Epoch. The start of the...
fauna of the Messel Pit
Messel pit
The Messel Pit is a disused quarry near the village of Messel, about southeast of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Bituminous shale was mined there. Because of its abundance of fossils, it has significant geological and scientific importance...
(i.e. Salimia and Idiornis) have also been suggested to be seriemas, though their status remains uncertain.
The seriemas have an extensible second claw that is raised from the ground. This resembles the "sickle claw" of Velociraptor
Velociraptor
Velociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 75 to 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V. mongoliensis; fossils...
and its relatives
Deinonychosauria
The Deinonychosauria were a clade of coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs from the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. These omnivores and carnivores are known for their switchblade-like second toe claws and for displaying numerous bird-like characteristics. The clade has been divided into two...
.
Etymology
Names for these birds in the Tupian languagesTupian languages
The Tupi or Tupian language family comprises some 70 languages spoken in South America, of which the best known are Tupi proper and Guarani.-History, members and classification:...
are siriema, sariama, çariama, which are explained as meaning "crested" (New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary).
External links
- Seriema videos on the Internet Bird Collection