Screamers: Species

Summary: There are three species of Screamers. Join Kiersten to meet each one of them in more detail.

 

For my hearing impaired followers, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean

 

Show Notes: 

Screamers: https://animaldiversity.org

Encyclopedia of Life: https://eol.org

Music written and performed by Katherine Camp

 

Transcript

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Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife.

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Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I’m Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we’ll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating. 

This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won’t regret it.

This is the second episode of Screamers. I hope you enjoyed the introductory episode about this unknown animal. The second thing I like about Screamers is that there are three species of this bird. Let’s take a closer look at each species.

Last week, I quickly mentioned the three species of screamer and gave an all encompassing description of this group. Today we will look at each species similarities and differences a bit closer.

Let’s start off with the Northern Screamer, Chauna chavaria. The Northern Screamer is 30 to 36 inches or 76 to 91 cm long. They have a stout body with a disproportionately small head. As I said in the first episode, they have little, tiny heads compared to their body. Sexes have the same coloration, so both males and females look alike. Adults have a gray crown that begins at the beak and ends just beneath the eye. Longer dark gray to black feathers stick out behind the head a bit like a short ponytail. White feathers spread from under the chin and sweep across the face just below the line of gray crown feather. The long, gangly neck is covered in shorter black feathers giving the appearance of a shaved neck. Fuller gray fathers cover the rest of the body from the base of the neck to the base of the legs. Bare, red skin covers the eye area from the beak to directly behind the eye. Adult beaks are gray and their legs are orange with hefty, turkey like feet that have slight webbing between the toes. Juveniles are duller in coloration. All three species of screamer have sharp spurs on their wings at the manus, which is the distal portion of their forelimb. 

The Northern Screamer is also known as the Black-necked Screamer. From the description I just provided, I can see why. The northern part of their name comes from there distribution in South America. This screamer is found across northern Columbia from the Atrato River and Magdalena River valleys east into the Lake Maracaibo area of Venezuela. 

They are most often found near water in habitats such as swamps, marshes, lagoons, riverbanks, and seasonally flooded river plains. They are a non-migratory species, so remain in the same area year round. Movement within that region is not uncommon in the search of food and searching for mates and appropriate territories by juveniles and non-breeding adults.

The Northern Screamer eats leaves, stems, and roots of aquatic plants. They usually graze like geese and can sometimes be seen doing this is loose flocks. 

Northern Screamers are listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature. They were last assessed in February of 2023 with a stable population numbering 60,000-100,000 mature individuals. 

Species number two, I am covering the species in random order so no importance is placed on which I speak about first, second, or last, the Southern Screamer, Chauna torquata. 

The Southern Screamer is also 30 to 36 inches or 76 to 91 cm long. They have a stout body with a disproportionately small head. This will be the same for all three species. The coloration differs from the Northern Screamer in slight ways, but once you know what to look for it is quite obvious. The Southern Screamer has a gray face from the crown of the head to an inch below the chin. They have the crest feathers sticking out from the base of the skull just like the Northern Screamer. The coloration on the neck of the Southern Screamer begins with one stripe of white feathers below the gray face and a stripe of black below the white feathers, The white and black feathers ring the neck like a collar. Below the black stripe the rest of the body is covered in gray feathers. The beak is gray and bare, red skin covers a small area on the face from the beak to just behind the eye, similar to the Northern Screamer. Their legs are orange with hefty, turkey like feet with a small potion of webbing between the toes. And, of course, they have the sharp spurs on the manus.

Southern Screamers are also found in South America but south of the Northern Screamer's range, which explains the name. They are found from the eastern half of Bolivia south into Argentina as far as Buenos Ares Province and east through Paraguay into south western Brazil and Uruguay. 

They prefer tropical and subtropical wetlands including lakes, marshes, and flooded meadows with scattered trees. They are permanent residents wherever they are found, but seasonal changes documented in a portion of their range suggests local movement.

They are also herbivores and typically eat leaves, stems, and seeds of aquatic plants. They also graze like geese, but have been seen digging for food. Flocks of up to 100 individuals may forage together in non-breeding seasons.

Southern Screamers are listed as Least Concern by the IUCN. They were last assessed in July of 2024 with a stable population numbering 66,700-667,000 mature individuals. 

The last species of Screamer is the Horned Screamer, Anhima cornuta.

Once again we start off with a large bodied bird 30 to 36 inches or 76 to 91 cm long. They also have the typical small head of other screamers. The coloration differs from the other two. Horned screamer are gray over the majority of their body with white speckles on the crown, throat and wing coverts, those are the feathers on the top of the wing. The belly is white. Their beak is gray and they have the typical thick legs and slightly webbed feet, but their legs are gray not orange. They also have the spurs on the manus. Their is one striking difference between this screamer and its other two cousins and that is the long thin horn-like projection on the top of its head. This is where the name Horned Screamer comes from. 

This “horn” typically measure 5 inches or 15 cm in length and shoots forward in an arch over the front of the head. It is very thin, so don’t think of it like a goat horn, think of it more like a flimsy antenna. It is made of cartilage and we’re not currently sure what its purpose is in the bird’s life.

The range of the Horned Screamer is much larger than our other two species and includes the Amazonian regions of Venezuela, to the eastern llanos of Columbia, to eastern Bolivia and south-central Brazil. 

Habitat frequented by these birds include tropical lowland freshwater areas such as lakes, ponds, rivers, marshes, and swamps. They are also herbivores eating leaves, stems, and seeds of plants. They do like grasses and sedges along water. 

They are permanent residents and groups of 5 to 10 will often live together defending a territory from other screamers. 

Horned Screamers are listed as Least Concern by the IUCN. They were last assessed in July of 2024 with a stable population numbering 16,700 to 66,700 mature individuals. 

That’s it for episode two of Screamers. I hope this deep dive into these three species has been an interesting ten minutes for you because my second favorite thing about Screamers is their three species. 

If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change. 

Join me next we for another exciting episode about screamers.  

    

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This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.