Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
THE CRANES, COURLANS, AND TRUMPETERS
THE CARIAMAS
(Family Cariamidm)
Eastern South America is the home of two very remarkable and closely related birds known as Cariamas or Chunias, the systematic position of which has given rise to much discussion and difference of opinion.
They are large, long-legged, crested birds, having a considerable superficial resemblance to the African Secretary-Bird, and were formerly associated with it as aberrant members of the Falconifornies, but careful investigation of the osteology and anatomy of the soft parts has also some apparent affinities with the Storks, but all things considered, they appear to find their closest relationship with the Cranes, Trumpeters, and Bustards, though well entitled to be ranked as a distinct family.