About Pipile jacutinga (Spix, 1825)
The black-fronted piping guan, scientifically named Pipile jacutinga (Spix, 1825), measures 63.5 to 74 cm (2.08 to 2.43 ft) long and weighs 1,100 to 1,400 g (2.4 to 3.1 lb). It has the general appearance of a slim turkey, with a thin neck and small head. Its plumage is mainly black with a bluish gloss, and it has a noticeable white wing patch marked with rows of black dots. It has a large white crest, a red throat wattle with a dark blue patch at the front, and a ring of bare white skin surrounding the dark eye. Its black-feathered face and forehead are unique among its genus. The species' legs and feet are red. Though it was more widespread in the past, the black-fronted piping guan is now distributed patchily across two main regions: near the Brazilian coast roughly from Paraná state north to Rio de Janeiro, and in Argentina's far northeastern Misiones Province plus adjacent eastern Paraguay. It is the only piping guan found within this current range, though it formerly had a small overlap with the blue-throated piping guan (P. cumanensis) in Paraguay. It lives in multiple types of Atlantic Forest, including evergreen, gallery, and coastal forest. It is almost always found in mature primary forest, but also occurs in older secondary forest and restinga. Historically, it ranged from sea level up to 1,850 m (6,070 ft) in elevation, but now it is usually only found below 1,000 m (3,300 ft).
