📸 PhotoPhoto: Patrick Coin ( Patrick Coin ) · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Great Tinamou
Tinamus major (Great Tinamou · オオシギダチョウ)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 Hunted for food, it has disappeared from many areas.
- 💡 Because its eggs are glossy turquoise-green, they stand out clearly against the leaf-littered forest floor.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The Great Tinamou is a chicken-like bird living on the floor of humid tropical forests in Central and South America; it is a weak flier and walks on the ground.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Tinamous have a small head, a slender, slightly curved bill, a heavy body, and short wings and tail. The Great Tinamou is olive-brown above with a whitish throat and belly and bluish-gray legs.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
Tinamous eat a wide variety of foods including seeds, roots, fruits, insects, and spiders, and the male incubates the eggs in a shallow scrape on the ground for about 17–21 days and cares for the chicks for a month or two. The eggs of the Great Tinamou are glossy turquoise-green.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List LC (2021) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/22678148/189781191
- • IUCN Red List category LC — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • doi.org — avilist.v2026
- • iucnredlist.org — 189781191
- • wikidata.org — Q852723
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Tinamus majorPCSL00504B.jpg
- • ebird.org — gretin1
- • animaldiversity.org — Tinamiformes
- • allaboutbirds.org — the-beauty-and-biology-of-egg-color
- • Silhouette: PhyloPic — Darren Naish (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · CC BY 3.0
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.