biology

Red-billed curassow

Red-billed curassow is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Red-billed curassow rather than just read about it. In short: The red-billed curassow or red-knobbed curassow (Crax blumenbachii) is an endangered species of cracid that is endemic to lowland Atlantic Forest in the states of Espírito Santo, Bahia and Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil. Its population is decreasing due to hunting and deforestation, and it has possibly been extirpated from Minas Gerais.

Key takeaways

Red-billed curassow belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Red-billed curassow to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Red-billed curassow from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The red-billed curassow or red-knobbed curassow (Crax blumenbachii) is an endangered species of cracid that is endemic to lowland Atlantic Forest in the states of Espírito Santo, Bahia and Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil. Its population is decreasing due to hunting and deforestation, and it has possibly been extirpated from Minas Gerais. It is currently being reintroduced to Rio de Janeiro by means of individuals bred in captivity. As suggested by its common name, the male has a largely red bill, but this is lacking in the female.

Description The red-billed curassow is a large bird reaching a length of 82 to 92 centimetres (32 to 36 in). The male has pure black upper parts with a large black crest, and white underparts. There are bright red wattles and knobs at the base of the bill. The male can be distinguished from the wattled curassow (Crax globulosa) by being less bluish-black and from the black curassow (Crax alector) by being less purplish-black. The female lacks the wattles and has black upper parts, a black and white barred crest, reddish-brown wings barred and mottled with black, and reddish-brown or ochre underparts.

Behaviour The red-billed curassow is a largely ground-dwelling bird. It feeds on seeds, fruits, buds and small invertebrates. Males can be heard issuing their loud "booms" in September and October. Females lay a clutch of one to four eggs and the young are fledged by the end of the year.

Status The red-billed curassow has a very limited range in eastern Brazil and populations there are declining because of habitat loss and hunting. The virgin forest in which it lives has largely been converted to agricultural land and plantations, and the bird is only present now in reserves, and even here it is illegally hunted and captured for the bird trade. There has been a successful captive breeding programme but the International Union for Conservation of Nature rates its conservation status in the wild as "endangered".

References

External links BirdLife Species Factsheet

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Red-billed curassow

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Red-billed curassow claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Red-billed curassow before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Red-billed curassow ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Red-billed curassow

In research: Red-billed curassow appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Red-billed curassow in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Red-billed curassow is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Birds described in 1825, Birds of the Atlantic Forest, Crax, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Red-billed curassow outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Red-billed curassow” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Red-billed curassow in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Red-billed curassow means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Red-billed curassow out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Red-billed curassow in simple terms?

Why does Red-billed curassow matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Red-billed curassow?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Red-billed curassow.