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Great Tinamous (Tinamus major), family Tinamidae, order Tinamiformes, Costa Rica
The tinamous are an ancient group of birds, related to ratites (ostriches, rheas, emus, and cassowaries).
Though they are not strong flyers, but they are capable of flight.
Tinamous are shy and secretive birds.
photos: Patrick Coin & Jose Antonio Redondo Zuñiga
Solitary Tinamou Tinamus solitarius
A flightless bird found in the Atlantic forest of eastern Brazil. Like other tinamous, it lays oddly-shaped eggs with a glossy, colorful shell, and it eats fruits, and seeds off the ground or low plants. Males will incubate the eggs which are in a nest on the ground, and will also rear the young for the short period of time before they are independent.
Near Threatened
image by miguelpodas
Tinamus tinamou
Which is the best bird?
White-throated tinamou
Grey tinamou
Solitary tinamou
Black tinamou
Great tinamou
Tinamus
Great Tinamou by Patrick Coin, CC BY-SA 2.5
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Name: Tinamus
Status: Extant
First Described: 1783
Described By: Hermann
Classification: Dinosauria, Theropoda, Neotheropoda, Averostra, Tetanurae, Orionides, Avetheropoda, Coelurosauria, Tyrannoraptora, Maniraptoriformes, Maniraptora, Pennaraptora, Paraves, Eumaniraptora, Averaptora, Avialae, Euavialae, Avebrevicauda, Pygostylia, Ornithothoraces, Euornithes, Ornithuromorpha, Ornithurae, Neornithes, Palaeognathae, Notopalaeognathae, Tinamiformes + Dinornithiformes Clade, Tinamiformes, Tinamidae, Tinaminae
Referred Species: T. guttatus (White-Throated Tinamou), T. tao (Grey Tinamou), T. solitarius (Solitary Tinamou), T. osgoodi (Black Tinamou), T. major (Great Tinamou)
Tinamus is a smaller genus of Tinamou that, ironically, contains some of the largest species of tinamou. Sadly, no extinct species of this bird exists, so it’s difficult to determine when Tinamus first appeared in the fossil record; it stands to reason that they probably first appeared at some point in the Miocene. There are five species of this Tinamou, that I shall discuss - once again - in alphabetical order by species.
White-Throated Tinamou by Livaldo Fregona, CC BY-SA 3.0
The White-Throated Tinamou is a Tinamou from Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. It has brown feathers with white spots, especially on the neck, lending it its name. They’re usually about 32 and 36 centimeters in length. They eat fruit on the ground as well as invertebrates, flowers, leaves, seeds, and roots in tropical forests at low elevations. Males will mate with as many as four other females, and then incubate the eggs for two to three weeks in a nest in dense brush or between roots. These birds are slightly threatened due to deforestation.
Grey Tinamou by Livaldo, in the Public Domain
The Grey Tinamou is an even larger species from Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia, and Guyana. It lives in humid lowland forests and some mountain forests, and is about 46 centimeters in length, making it one of the largest Tinamous. As its name suggests, they are basically entirely gray in color, with some black and brown striping and some white spotting. It is a very shy bird with a distinctive song. The male will incubate the ground and raise the eggs, and they feed on fruit and species. Unfortunately, due to deforestation, it’s vulnerable to extinction.
Solitary Tinamou by Francesco Veronesi, CC BY-SA 2.0
The Solitary Tinamou is another large tinamou - about 45 centimeters in length - from Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. It is a large, brown tinamou with stripes of black and patches of grey and white on its body. It lays blue eggs that are incubated by the males, and the males also rear the young for a little while. They eat fruits and seeds in humid forests and mountain forests, and unfortunately logging has made it near threatened to extinction.
Black Tinamou by Pablo José Negret, under Fair Use
The Black Tinamou is another large one, about 40 to 46 centimeters in length, and they’re very stocky birds with the females larger than the males. They’re really slate grey rather than black, and they have some brown on the wings and stomach. They also have blue-grey legs and brown eyes. They make whistles about one second long, but very little is known of its behavior - though it has been shown to feed on nuts. They lay shiny blue eggs in nests of two, and seem to breed between March and November. They’re mostly known from Peru and Columbia, in the mountain forests of the Andes, and unfortunately they’re also vulnerable to extinction.
Great Tinamou by Tony Castro, CC BY-SA 4.0
The Great Tinamou is not actually the largest bird in this genus - it’s only about 44 centimeters in length - but still, they’re the weight and size of a small turkey regardless. They’re brownish to olive colored, and coloration varies across subspecies. They make three short loud piping notes in a row for a call, which can be heard throughout their rainforest habitat in the early evening. Males once again take care of the eggs, with multiple males mating with multiple females and vice versa and the males incubating about four eggs until hatching, with the eggs a light green color. The male will then care for the chicks for about three weeks before starting the process again - the breeding season itself is very long, from mid winter to late summer. They eat a variety of seeds, fruit, and small invertebrates, even frogs and small lizards in leaf litter, and they live primarily in rainforests and lowland forests, as well as swamps, mostly in lower latitudes, and they aren’t affected by forest fragmentation. Still, they’re near threatened due to habitat destruction.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinamus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-throated_tinamou
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_tinamou
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solitary_tinamou
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_tinamou
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_tinamou
New Tinamou Described in Peru
A 20-year-old record from the remote Peruvian Sierra del Divisor by Tom Schulenberg documents the occurrence of the new species in Peru: https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/235615 The genome has been sequenced and analyses are underway; soon we will know the evolutionary history of the Slaty-masked Tinamou. In the illustration made by Fernando Igor de Godoy, the species of the genus 𝘛𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘶𝘴 (now appropriately assigned) that are most closely related are shown from top to bottom: 𝘛𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘶𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘴, 𝘛. 𝘷𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘶𝘴, 𝘛. 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘪, and 𝘛. 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘴.
via: Luis Morais
Read more:
New 'remarkably tame' tinamou species discovered in Amazon mountains may already be at risk of extinction
https://phys.org/news/2025-12-remarkably-tinamou-species-amazon-mountains.html
Newly Described Tinamou!
A new species of Tinamus (Aves: Tinamiformes) from the western Amazon, Brazil
LUIS A. MORAIS, MARCO A. CROZARIOL, FERNANDO I. GODOY, RICARDO A. A. PLÁCIDO, MARCOS A. RAPOSO
Abstract
We describe Tinamus resonans sp. nov., a new species of tinamou from the montane forests of the Serra do Divisor, western Amazonia, Brazil. The species is distinguished by a unique combination of plumage pattern, vocal repertoire, and ecological characteristics, including a conspicuous dark slate facial mask, vivid rufous-cinnamon underparts, and a uniform brownish-gray back. Its vocalizations are remarkable, consisting of long and powerful songs that echo strikingly across the steep montane slopes, producing a characteristic resonant effect. The species was documented exclusively at higher elevations within a transitional zone between submontane and stunted forests, where the understory is densely structured by root mats. A preliminary population estimate, based on field detections and spatial extrapolation, suggests approximately 2,106 individuals restricted to the Serra do Divisor massif. Although no immediate anthropogenic pressures were observed within its range, the species may be highly vulnerable to climate change and to proposed infrastructure projects that threaten the integrity of this federally protected region. The discovery of T. resonans highlights the biological uniqueness of the Serra do Divisor, reinforces its status as a center of montane endemism, and underscores the critical importance of maintaining its long-term conservation.
Read the paper here:
A new species of Tinamus (Aves: Tinamiformes) from the western Amazon, Brazil | Zootaxa
Grey Tinamou (Tinamus tao) mother and chick, family Tinamidae, order Tinamiformes, Ecuador
Vulnerable.
The tinamous are an ancient group of birds, related to ratites (ostriches, rheas, emus, and cassowaries).
Though they are not strong flyers, they are capable of flight.
Tinamous are shy and secretive birds.
photograph by Dušan Brinkhuizen
