Trinidad piping guan  (Pipile pipile)

Classified as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List (1) and listed on Appendix I of CITES (6).

The Trinidad piping guan is known locally as the 'pawi' (3). This rare bird is a blackish-brown colour all-over with a slight purple glossy hue and with white tips to the wing-coverts (2). The bare dewlap and cere are blue in colour while the legs are red (4).

Endemic to Trinidad and previously found in forests throughout the island from sea level to the mountain summit (3). Today the only remaining population is found in the eastern portion of the Northern Range where only 150 km² of suitable habitat remains (2).

Inhabits the steep, hilly areas of montane forest where numerous streams, sparse ground cover and abundant lianas and epiphytes occur (2).

Very little is known about the natural ecology of the Trinidad piping guan. There are however, records of breeding activity in most months suggesting that this species has a drawn-out breeding season (5). Nests may be found amongst a tangle of vegetation and are platforms constructed from sticks, which usually contain two eggs (5).

Adults forage at dusk in small groups of up to five individuals (5) and feed mainly on the fruit and seeds of trees, preferring the fruit of the light virola tree (Virola surinamensis) (3).

The Trinidad piping guan has undergone a drastic decline in population numbers, mainly due to illegal hunting but also from the effects of deforestation, either for timber or for the conversion to plantation agriculture (2). These factors continue to threaten this species today (1).

The Trinidad piping guan has been legally protected since 1963 and international trade in the species is banned by its listing on Appendix I of CITES (2). Much of the present range is within forest reserves but the laws protecting both the species and the habitat are generally poorly enforced (2). Recent campaigns appear to be finally changing attitudes and species-specific ecotourism may have a role to play in the future of this species (2). Presently however, the population is extremely small (estimated at around 200 individuals) (2), and time to save this species may be running out.

View information on this species at the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre.

For more information on the Trinidad piping guan see:

• BirdLife International’s World Bird Database
  http://www.birdlife.org/datazone/species/index.html?action=SpcHTMDetails.asp&sid=87&m=0
• BirdLife International (2000) Threatened Birds of the World. Lynx Edicions and BirdLife International, Barcelona and Cambridge.