During Lee’s and Rachel’s visit to REGUA, we had the chance of visiting the high Matumbo area (Estreito) where a Red-billed Curassow (male) has chosen to make his residence. We were informed that this bird had suddenly appeared in the grounds of this weekend home belonging to Senhor João from Rio de Janeiro.

The Red-billed Curassow was baptized with the name of “Aparecido”, which means the one that appeared (in the Portuguese language) by Camila, a 10 year old girl, who enthusiastically provided the name for this bird. Camila’s father is the caretaker of this place and he mentioned to us that Aparecido has been seen in this area for the last two months. Aparecido is regularly seen both within Senhor João’s chicken coup and in the surrounding forest adjacent to REGUA’s land.

Aparecido is showing the behaviour of a wild bird, weary of human presence. With the help of Jacob Hall and Katerina Samara, conservation biology students volunteering at REGUA, we aim at collecting data on the existing Red-billed Curassow population within the reserve and adjacent areas.

More photos of this fascinating bird can be found here.