Black-fronted piping guan

The black-fronted piping guan or jacutinga (Pipile jacutinga) is a bird in the chachalaca, guan and curassow family Cracidae. This species occurs in Atlantic Forests in south-eastern Brazil and adjacent Argentina and Paraguay. It has become quite rare in recent decades due to hunting and habitat destruction (BirdLife International 2004).

Black-fronted piping guan
At Iguazu, Argentina
Conservation status
Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Galliformes
Family:	Cracidae
Genus:	Pipile
Species:	P. jacutinga
Binomial name
Pipile jacutinga (Spix, 1825)
Synonyms
Penelope jacutinga Spix, 1825 Aburria jacutinga (Spix, 1825)

It is a large bird, some 63–74 cm in length, and similar in general appearance to a slim turkey with thin neck and small head. Pipile jacutinga is mainly black with a bluish gloss; it has a conspicuous white wing patch bearing 3 neat rows of tiny black dots. The large crest is whitish, and it has a red throat wattle with a dark blue patch at the front. Its naked whitish eye-ring and black-feathered face and forehead are unique in its genus. The legs and feet are red.

No other piping guan is found in its range, though the Gray's piping guan (Pipile cumanensis grayi) approaches it in Paraguay. This bird has a pale bluish pendulous wattle, a smaller wing patch, and an entirely naked white face and white forehead.