The Speckled Chachalaca (Ortalis guttata) is a species of 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...

 in the Cracidae

Cracidae

The chachalacas, guans and curassows are birds in the family Cracidae.These are species of tropical and subtropical Central and South America. One species, the Plain Chachalaca, just reaches southernmost Texas in the USA...

 family. It is found in forests and woodlands in the western Amazon Basin

Amazon Basin

The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries that drains an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of South America. The basin is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela...

 and disjunctly

Disjunct distribution

In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but widely separated from each other geographically...

 in the Atlantic forests in eastern Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , 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...

. It has distinct white scaling/spotting on the lower neck and chest, but otherwise it resembles other chachalaca

Chachalaca

Chachalacas are mainly brown birds from the genus Ortalis. These cracids are found in wooded habitats in far southern United States , Mexico, and Central and South America. They are social, can be very noisy and often remain fairly common even near humans, as their relatively small size makes them...

s, it being vaguely pheasant

Pheasant

Pheasants refer to some members of the Phasianinae subfamily of Phasianidae in the order Galliformes.Pheasants are characterised by strong sexual dimorphism, males being highly ornate with bright colours and adornments such as wattles and long tails. Males are usually larger than females and have...

-like (though far more arboreal and social), and with an overall brown plumage

Plumage

Plumage refers both to the layer of feathers that cover a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage vary between species and subspecies and can also vary between different age classes, sexes, and season. Within species there can also be a...

.

Taxonomy

Several taxa here included as 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 Speckled Chachalaca have been considered valid species instead; the Scaled Chachalaca (O. squamata Lesson

René-Primevère Lesson

René Primevère Lesson was a French surgeon, naturalist, ornithologist, and herpetologist.Lesson was born at Rochefort, and at the age of sixteen he entered the Naval Medical School there...

, 1829) in south-eastern Brazil, and the East Brazilian Chachalaca (O. araucuan Spix, 1825) in eastern Brazil. The last of these has also been referred to as the Brazilian Chachalaca or the White-bellied Chachalaca, although the former arguably is problematic as numerous other chachalacas are found in Brazil, while the latter leads to easy confusion with the Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

n Ortalis leucogastra. Alternatively, araucuan and squamata have been included as subspecies of the Little Chachalaca

Little Chachalaca

The Little Chachalaca is a small bird found only in the northern part of South America. It grows to about 38 cm in length and weighs . This bird lives mostly in trees. It is a member of the Cracidae family, and is found in northern Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana and Venezuela...

 (the connection between the Guiana Shield and Atlantic forest is known from several other birds, e.g. the Buff-throated Woodcreeper

Buff-throated Woodcreeper

The Buff-throated Woodcreeper is a resident passerine bird found in tropical South America in the Guiana Shield and disjunctly in the northern Atlantic Forest. It formerly included the Cocoa Woodcreeper and the Lafresnaye's Woodcreeper as subspecies...

 and the Yellow-green Grosbeak

Yellow-green Grosbeak

The Yellow-Green Grosbeak is a species of cardinal in the Cardinalidae family.It is found in Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Suriname, and Venezuela....

). Both araucuan and squamata were originally described as valid species, but – without reason – changed to subspecies of O. guttata. Nevertheless, they all have white scaling/spotting on the lower neck and chest, thus resembling the Amazonian nominate group (incl. subaffinis), and most recent authorities continue to treat all as subspecies of O. guttata.
The Colombian Chachalaca

Colombian Chachalaca

The Colombian Chachalaca is a species of bird in the Cracidae family. It is found in forests and woodlands in the inter-Andean valleys in Colombia. It has traditionally been treated as a subspecies of the Speckled Chachalaca....

 (O. columbiana Hellmayr

Carl Edward Hellmayr

Carl Eduard Hellmayr was an Austrian ornithologist.-Life and work:Hellmayr was born in Vienna and studied at the University of Vienna, although he did not finish his degree...

, 1906) was formerly considered a subspecies in this group, but is now recognized as a separate species by the South American Classification Committee of the AOU

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...

 and the IOC

International Ornithological Congress

The International Ornithological Congress series forms the oldest and largest international series of meetings of ornithologists. It is organised by the International Ornithological Committee, a group of about 200 ornithologists...

.

Status

It is common in large parts of its Amazonian range, and while it remains locally fairly common in eastern Brazil, it has suffered due to the extensive habitat destruction

Habitat destruction

Habitat destruction is the process in which natural habitat is rendered functionally unable to support the species present. In this process, the organisms that previously used the site are displaced or destroyed, reducing biodiversity. Habitat destruction by human activity mainly for the purpose of...

 in this region. Nevertheless, its tolerance of disturbed habitats combined with its relatively small size makes it far less vulnerable than e.g. the related curassow

Curassow

Curassows are one of the three major groups of cracid birds. Three of the four genera are restricted to tropical South America; a single species of Crax ranges north to Mexico...

s.