Little Chachalaca vs Scaled Chachalaca

Little Chachalaca

Ortalis motmot

Large520 gForest

The little chachalaca is 43 to 54 cm (1.4 to 1.8 ft) long and weighs 345 to 620 g (0.76 to 1.4 lb). Its head is reddish chestnut, its upperparts reddish brown to gray-brown, and its underparts gray. Its central tail feathers are gray-brown and the outer ones rusty. Its primary flight feathers are dark brown. Its facial skin is dark slate gray. Voice: The little chachalaca's song is "a loud, rollicking duet, a repeated 'WATCH-a-lak', which is mainly given at dawn and dusk".

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Rafael Bernhard · CC BY 4.0

Scaled Chachalaca

Ortalis squamata

Large548 gShrubland

The scaled chachalaca is about 50 cm (1.6 ft) long. One male weighed about 620 g (1.4 lb) and a female 498 g (1.1 lb). Its plumage is mostly shades of brown, darker on the upperside. The breast is also dark brown with pale feather edges that give a scalloped or scaly effect. The belly is buffy and the vent chestnut. It has a small pinkish throat patch. The bare skin around the dark eye is slate gray. Voice: The scaled chachalaca's song is "a raucous, very noisy but highly variable 'racket', given in duet or chorus from multiple individuals, cacataPOOP, cacataPOP, cacataWHUMP, cacataWEEcata on pitch." It also makes "an irregular but sometimes rhythmic cackling or throaty bubbling, cuhcuh-cuhCAHcuhcuhcucCAH cuhcuhcuhcuh...."

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Fabrício Mil Homens Riella · CC BY 4.0

Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Little Chachalaca and Scaled Chachalaca.