María A. García-Amado revised the account as part of a partnership with Unión Venezolana de Ornitólogos (UVO) and Natalia Piland reviewed. Peter Pyle contributed to the Plumages, Molts, and Structure page, and Guy Kirwan contributed to the Systematics page. August Davidson-Onsgard curated the media. JoAnn Hackos, Daphne R. Walmer, and Robin K. Murie copy-edited the draft.
Anhima cornuta
(Linnaeus, 1766)
PROTONYM:Palamedea cornuta
Linnaeus, 1766. Systema Naturæ. Editio duodecima reformata. Tomus I [part 1], p.232.
UPPERCASE: current genusUppercase first letter: generic synonym● and ● See: generic homonymslowercase: species and subspecies●: early names, variants, misspellings‡: extinct†: type speciesGr.: ancient GreekL.: Latin<: derived fromsyn: synonym of/: separates historical and modern geographic namesex: based onTL: type localityOD: original diagnosis (genus) or original description (species)
The range of the Horned Screamer includes Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
Colombia: Valle del Cauca and the middle Magdalena valley (35
Hilty, S. L., and W. L. Brown (1986). A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.
), in the departments of Meta (36
Gill, F. B., F. J. Stokes, and C. C. Stokes (1974). Observations on the Horned Screamer. Wilson Bulletin 86(1):43–50.
), Amazonas (35
Hilty, S. L., and W. L. Brown (1986). A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.
), Vichada (37
Vásquez-Ávila, A., M. Pinzón-Arias, and C. Alfonso-Cuta (2019). Primeros registros confirmados de Anhima cornuta en el departamento de Vichada, Colombia. Ornitología Colombiana 17:eNB06.
), Arauca, and Casanare (38
Acevedo-Charry, O., A. Pinto-Gómez and J. O. Rangel-C. (2014). Las aves de la Orinoquia colombiana: una revisión de sus registros. In Colombia Diversidad Biótica, Volumen 14 (Rangel-C. J. O., Editor), Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá D.C., Colombia. pp. 691–750.
).
Venezuela: south of the Maracaibo basin, east of the Andes (Táchira, Merida, and Trujillo states), southeast of Falcon state, in the San Pablo de Urama marshes (Carabobo state), near the Cumaripa dam (Yaracuy state), in the Venezuela plains (Apure, Barinas, Cojedes, Guárico and Portuguesa states), in Maturin (Monagas state), in the Ajies river (Sucre state), in Orinoco Delta Lodge (Delta Amacuro), and in El Palmar (Bolivar state) (39
Hilty, S. L. (2003). Birds of Venezuela. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.
; 40
eBird (2023). eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance [web application]. eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Available: http://www.ebird.org.
).
Ecuador: provinces Guayas (41
Ridgely, R. S., and P. J. Greenfield (2001). The Birds of Ecuador. Volumes 1–2. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, USA.
, 42
Alava, J. J., M. Costantino, E. Astudillo, X. Arosemena, and M. Peñafiel. (2009). Population, seasonality and conservation threats of the Horned Screamer (Anhima cornuta) in southwestern Ecuador. Waterbirds 32: 81-86. https://doi.org/10.1675/063.032.0109
) and Los Rios (30
Martínez-A., D., and P. Gastezzi-A. (2014). Registros nuevos de la distribución del canclón (Anhima cornuta) en el suroeste tropical de Ecuador. Ornitología Colombiana 14:125–129.
).
Brazil: eastern to northeastern Brazil, north of the Amazon to Amapá (43
Novaes, F. C. (1974). Ornitologia do Território do Amapá. 1. Publicações Avulsas Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi (Zoologia) 25:1–121.
), south of the Amazon to western Ceará and Bahia (19
Sick, H. (1993). Birds in Brazil: A Natural History. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.
), and to Mato Grosso and Paraná (19
Sick, H. (1993). Birds in Brazil: A Natural History. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.
).
Guyana: a handful of observations have been made around Nappi, in west-central Guyana (44
eBird. 2023. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Ithaca, New York, EUA. Phoenicoparrus jamesi (Sclater, 1886). Obtenido de https://ebird.org/species/jamfla1
).
Peru: Parque Nacional del Manu, Madre de Dios Territorial Reserve, and Puerto Maldonado in southeastern Peru (44
eBird. 2023. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Ithaca, New York, EUA. Phoenicoparrus jamesi (Sclater, 1886). Obtenido de https://ebird.org/species/jamfla1
).
Bolivia: Madidi National Park, Chuchini Ecological Reserve, and Santa Cruz (44
eBird. 2023. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance. Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Ithaca, New York, EUA. Phoenicoparrus jamesi (Sclater, 1886). Obtenido de https://ebird.org/species/jamfla1
).
Paraguay: Mbaracayú-Lagunita (45
Pérez, N. and A. Colmán. (1995). Aves del refugio biológico Mbaracayú. Salto del Guairá, Paraguay. Biota 4: 1-24.
, 46
del Castillo, H. and R. P. Clay. (2004). Annotated checklist of the birds of Paraguay. Asunción: Asosiación Guyra Paraguay.
).
Altitudinal Range
Typically found below 800 masl (47
Parker, T. A., D. F. Stotz, and J. W. Fitzpatrick (1996). Ecological and distributional databases. In Neotropical Birds: Ecology and Conservation (D. F. Stotz, T. A. Parker, J. W. Fitzpatrick, and D. K. Moskovits, Editors), University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, USA. pp. 113‒436.
), and often below 300 masl; e.g., Venezuela (39
Hilty, S. L. (2003). Birds of Venezuela. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.
) and in Ecuador (41
Ridgely, R. S., and P. J. Greenfield (2001). The Birds of Ecuador. Volumes 1–2. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, USA.
). Locally can occur up to 1,000 meters above sea level in Colombia (35
Hilty, S. L., and W. L. Brown (1986). A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, USA.
; 37
Vásquez-Ávila, A., M. Pinzón-Arias, and C. Alfonso-Cuta (2019). Primeros registros confirmados de Anhima cornuta en el departamento de Vichada, Colombia. Ornitología Colombiana 17:eNB06.
), or to 1,400 masl in Peru (48
Schulenberg, T. S., J. P. O’Neill, D. F. Lane, T. Valqui, and C. Albújar (2001). Birds. In Perú: Biabo Cordillera Azul (W. S. Alverson, L. O. Rodríguez, and D. K. Moskovits, Editors), Rapid Biological Inventories Report 2. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL, USA. pp. 146–155, 206–225.
).
Extralimital Records
An individual Horned Screamer was recorded in northern Misiones, Argentina; 10 km southwest of the nearest record in the Brazilian locality of Capanema (49
Di Sallo, F. G., Ferreyra, C. A., Gomez, M. and A. Bodrati (2023). El Aruco (Anhima cornuta), Una Nueva Especie Para La Avifauna De Argentina. Nuestras Aves, n.º 68 (octubre). https://doi.org/10.56178/na.vi68.998
).
Historical Changes to the Distribution
The Horned Screamer has a wide distribution and is common in many areas, but its range also has contracted significantly in some regions. It formerly occurred in Trinidad, but was "verging on extinction" by the 1930s, and has not been reported there since 1964 (17
Herklots, G. A. C. (1961). The birds of Trinidad and Tobago. Collins, London, UK.
, 50
ffrench, R. (1985). Changes in the avifauna of Trinidad. Pp. 986–991 in: Buckley et al. (1985).
). It is also thought to be extirpated from most of the Guianan countries, with no records from Suriname since 1966 (51
Ottema, O. H., S. Ramcharan, P. Ouboter, F. Chin Joe, and K. D. B. Dijkstra (2009). Four bird species new to Surinam. Cotinga 31: 140–141.
), and only a handful of records from one general locality in Guyana (52
Snyder, D. E. (1966). The birds of Guyana (formerly British Guyana). Salem, MA: Peabody Mus.
, 53
Braun, M. J., D. W. Finch, M. B. Robbins, and B. K. Schmidt (2007). A Field Checklist of the Birds of Guyana. 2nd Edition. Publication 121. Biological Diversity of the Guianas Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA.
, 40
eBird (2023). eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance [web application]. eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Available: http://www.ebird.org.
). The type locality of the Horned Screamer is "Cayenne," suggesting that the species formerly occurred in French Guiana, but there are no recent records from that country either (54
Tostain, O., J. L. Dujardin, C. Érard, and J.-M. Thiollay (1992). Oiseaux de Guyane: Biologie, Écologie, Protection, Répartition. Société d’Etudes Ornithologiques & Laboratoire d’Ecologie Générale, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Brunoy, France.
).
The distribution of the Horned Screamer in western Ecuador also has contracted, although the size of the remaining population is currently increasing (41
Ridgely, R. S., and P. J. Greenfield (2001). The Birds of Ecuador. Volumes 1–2. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY, USA.
).
García-Amado, M. A., P. Pyle, and N. Piland (2024). Horned Screamer (Anhima cornuta), version 2.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg and N. C. García, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.horscr1.02
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