Plain Chachalaca

Plain chachalacas are the only U.S. representative of the Cracidae family — a lineage of large, tree-dwelling gamebirds shared with guans and curassows that otherwise stops well short of the border. The name comes straight from the call, a loud, raucous "cha-cha-lac" that carries through the brush. The bird itself is understated: grayish head and neck, dull olive-brown body, and a blackish, green-glossed tail tipped in buffy white, with both sexes flushing a bare red throat patch come breeding season. Wary and social, chachalacas move in bands of up to 15, working both the canopy and the ground for fruit, seeds, and leaves, and would rather run or leap through brush than take wing when trouble shows up. Their range just barely reaches into the U.S. in southernmost Texas before continuing south through Mexico into northern Costa Rica.