Studies of Cuiabá Basin Wildlife: the Undulated Tinamou/Jaó. Cuiabá Basin Fauna Project (CBFP) Pages.

Welcome back to these species profiles.  Today we talk about the Undulated Tinamou.  It is a ground-dwelling bird that seems reluctant to fly when under threat. Rather, it skulks low on the ground.  To this biologist it seems to fulfill the ecological niche that would be inhabited by Grey and Red-Legged Partridges in Britain.

They are not rare.  Athough not seen very oftern, this is a behavioural trait rather than anything to do with their population density, population size or population distribution.  They are grazers and feed on seeds which are crushed in the gizzard. Their size is 28 centimetres. They are heard very often in the undergrowth, but rarely seen.

The best plates can be found in Helmut Sick's 'Brazilian Ornithology' / Ornitologia Brasileira.

Taxonomically, it is classified as

• Kingdom Animalia
• Phylum Chordata - the chordates or animals possessing a spinal cord ie the vertebrates
• Class Aves - the birds
• Order Tinamiformes - quail, partridges and allies (23 species according to author Sick)
• Family Tinamidae
• Genus Crypturellus
• Species Crypturellus undulatus undulatus