#cariamiformes

[herpsandbirds]

Red-legged Seriema (Cariama cristata), family Cariamidae, order Cariamiformes, Brazil

photograph by Mauricio Silvera

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

red-legged seriema!!!

Have you seen the red-legged seriema (Cariama cristata)?

I have now

Yes, in photos/videos

Yes, irl

I'm not sure

Voting ended onJul 27, 2025

Seriemas are the closest living relatives of terror birds!

[saritawolf]

Red-legged Seriema (Cariama cristata) - (c) SaritaWolf - please do not repost

[jojos-birdwatching-adventure]

Santana as a Serima?

(they look like mini dinos and they kill their prey VIOLENTLY)

had to use a picture of him sitting weird lol

[best-bird-tournament]

Cariamiformes order / Seriema (Cariamidae) family

Which is the best bird?

Red-legged seriema

Black-legged seriema

Voting ended onFeb 4

This order and family contain just two extant species in two genera (Cariama and Chunga).

[bestanimal]

Round 3 - Reptilia - Cariamiformes

(Sources - 1, 2)

Our next order of birds are the Cariamiformes. While this order dates back over 50 million years and contains famous families such as the Eocene/Pleistocene Phorusrhacids (“terror birds”), the only extant family is Cariamidae, containing two living species: the Red-legged Seriema (Cariama cristata) (image 1) and the Black-Legged Seriema (Chunga burmeisteri) (image 2).

Seriemas are large birds with long necks, legs, and tails, and erectile crests. They range from 70–90 cm (2-3 ft) in length. They can fly for short distances, and roost and nest in trees, but mainly forage on foot and run from danger. They give loud, yelping calls and are often heard before they are seen. They have sharp claws, with an extensible, curved second toe claw, convergent with the prehistoric dromaeosaurs. In behavior and niche, they are also convergent with the African Secretarybird (Sagittarius serpentarius), hunting insects and small reptiles. When seriemas catch a larger animal, they will beat the prey on the ground or throw it at a hard surface until it is stunned or dead, after which they will use their sickle claw and beak to dismember it. They live in grasslands, savanna, dry woodland, and open forests of Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay.

Seriemas may travel in small family groups, but become territorial during breeding, fighting with rivals via kicks and loud calls. Males will display their wings and strut in front of females, as well as present them with food gifs. They are monogamous. Pairs will build a stick nest in a tree close to the ground, lined with leaves and dung. Both sexes build the nest, but the female does most of the incubation. Hatchlings are downy but stay in the nest for about two weeks, after which they leave the nest and follow after their parents.

As stated above, the Cariamiformes evolved by the Early Eocene, with a suspected Late Cretaceous origin. The group was once more diverse and widespread, with today’s two living species having evolved in Middle Miocene, around 16 million years ago. Two prehistoric seriema species, Chunga incerta and Miocariama patagonica, are known from the Miocene of Argentina.

(source)

Do you have a favorite in Cariamiformes?

One or more of my favorite animals is in Cariamiformes

I love at least one or more of these animals

I like at least one or more of these animals

I am neutral about all of these animals

I dislike all of these animals

Voting ended onMay 17, 2025

Propaganda under the cut:

Farmers sometimes use tamed seriemas as guard animals, to protect poultry from predators and human intruders.

The Red-legged Seriema (Cariama cristata) can flee predators on foot at speeds of up to 25 km/h (15 mph) before choosing to fly.

Families of Red-legged Seriemas will often sing together. Often one member of a family starts a song just as another finishes, or two will sing simultaneously. These songs can be heard several kilometers away.

The song of the Red-legged Seriema was sampled by Boards of Canada for their track "Happy Cycling", on their debut album “Music Has the Right to Children”.

In 2018, a camera trap recorded a 20 minute video of an adult Red-legged Seriema killing one of three nestlings, eating part of it, and allowing the other two nestlings to feed on the carcass. It was the first documented parental infanticide and cannibalism by the species in the wild. The researchers noted that very few Red-legged Seriema broods are able to fledge three young, and speculate that the third nestling may serve as reserve food for the other two in times of famine.

Seriema claw:

(source)

[alphynix]

April Fools 2023: How Titanis Lost The Right To Bear Arms

Huge, flightless, and carnivorous, the phorusrhacids (or terror birds) were some of the largest apex predators in South America during its Cenozoic "splendid isolation" as an island continent – and they were possibly the closest that birds ever came to reclaiming the ecological roles of their extinct non-avian theropod dinosaur relatives. 

And for a while in the late 1990s and early 2000s there was a hypothesis that they'd even re-evolved clawed hands.

This idea was based on the wing bones of Titanis walleri, the only terror bird known to have dispersed northwards during the Great American Biotic Interchange when North and South America became connected via the Isthmus of Panama.

Living during the Pliocene and Pleistocene in Florida and Texas, between about 5 and 1.8 million years ago, Titanis stood around 1.5-1.8m tall (~5-6') and was heavily built, with long strong legs and a massive hooked beak. Remains of its small wings were incomplete and fragmentary but had seemingly unusual joints, with what looked like a stiffer wrist and more flexible "fingers" than other birds, which led paleontologist Robert Chandler to propose in 1994 that this terror bird species had modified its wings into clawed grasping arms similar to those of dromaeosaurs, used to restrain prey animals while its beak tore them apart.

But the idea of a giant murder-bird with added meathook-hands only lasted about a decade. Further investigation in 2005 showed that Titanis' arms weren't that weird after all – the same sort of joints are found in terror birds' closest living relatives, the seriemas, and so Titanis really had the same sort of small vestigial wings as many other large flightless birds.

…However, there still could have been some claws on there. Many modern birds actually have one or two small claws on their hands that aren't visible under their feathers, and terror birds like Titanis having something like that going on is completely plausible – they just wouldn't have been using them for any sort of specalized predatory function.

———

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[haveyouseenthisbirdpoll]

Have you seen a Red-legged seriema (Cariama cristata)?

Yes, in nature

Yes, in captivity

No, only in pictures/taxidermy/I've only heard of it

No, and I have never heard of this bird

No, but I have heard one

I might have/I'm not sure

Voting ended onMay 26, 2024

photo source