Bare-faced Curassow Gallery

Crax fasciolata

The Birds of the World website offers these introductory words about the Bare-faced Curassow:  The Bare-faced Curassow is distributed from eastern Amazonia south through central Brazil into Paraguay and northern Argentina. It forages on the ground in forest and forest edge, where it can be fairly common. It is easiest to detect in early morning and late evening, when individuals or pairs wander into clearings or deliver their deep, booming songs. Like other Crax curassows, this species is sexually dimorphic: the male is mostly black with a white vent, while the female is barred black above with orange to rufous underparts. The Bare-faced Curassow is the only curassow with extensive bare black skin on the face.

I saw and photographed my first Bare-faced Curassow on the morning of August 19, 2023 in the Amazon Basin Region of Brazil.  Our small group with Jeff Parker Tours was at Southwild’s Fazenda São Nicolau located on the Juruena River west of Alta Floresta.  That morning we were up early for a boat ride on the river when we spotted a Bare-faced Curassow.  For a more detailed description of this day, look here at my blog post on my Brazil trip.  Here are some of my photos of this unusual bird.

I got some very good looks at the Bare-faced Curassow on both August 29 and August 30, 2023 at Pouso Alegre Lodge in the Pantanal.  They were hanging around the main feeder area at the Lodge.  The first picture is of a female.  She was very beautiful sporting her ornate crest.  The last two pictures are males.