Cage & Aviary Birds Magazine No.5792 Global Budgie Scene Back Issue

IT’S A CRACID!” If the late Frank Carson had been a
birdkeeper, he’d surely have been a fan of the
characterful Cracidae: the guans, chachalacas and
curassows, near relations of the pheasants and other
gamebirds. Even those names are bursting with
personality, and the birds themselves are a knockout when
viewed in a suitably sizeable aviary.
The chachalacas and guans are smaller and more
arboreal, whereas the curassows are huge – some almost
turkey-sized – and enjoy strutting regally around on the
deck. And it’s the more spectacular curassows that tend to
feature in bird collections. For instance, I’m delighted to
learn from Ron Toft (see page 16) that the splendid
yellow-knobbed curassow (Crax daubentoni) stars at The
Living Rainforest near Newbury, not too far from me.
It's ages since I saw this species in its native habitat on the plains of
Venezuela – land that the late President Chávez ordered to be
made over to cash crops as soon as possible, thereby
abruptly putting this and many other species at risk.
The curassows combine a natural nobility with some
pretty wacky looks – notably, their brightly coloured, even
bizarre-looking headgear. As well as the yellow-knobbed
curassow, you've got the blue-knobbed, the wattled and
the northern helmeted. Ah, the northern helmeted... it was
a male of this species that carved out a place in Cage &
Aviary Birds history when, during a staff visit to Leeds
Castle, it formed an intimate relationship with the right leg
of this magazine’s editor of that time.
I couldn’t possibly say which editor, of course.
■ Ed’s Quote of the Week: “To break the ice, Al’s wife
brought along her giant sloth to meet
us.” That would probably do the trick,
especially at a parrot seminar! See page
19. And enjoy your birds this week.