Photo: Fernando Moraes
The Blue-throated Piping Guan is a bird of the Galliformes order from the Cracidae family. It is monotypic and often included in the genus Pipile. In the past, it has been considered conspecific with the Blue-throated Piping Guan (Aburria cumanensis). It is one of the species threatened with extinction in a short period if the remaining fragments of the Atlantic Forest are not effectively protected. Its population has been drastically reduced. It has disappeared in most places where it was once common and abundant, including in the valleys of the major rivers in the South and Southeast of Brazil, where it was found in any forested area. Old reports indicate the hunting of approximately 50,000 Blue-throated Piping Guans in the Itajaí River valley in Santa Catarina state in just a few weeks during the winter of 1866. There are also old photographs from the 1930s showing hunters next to “pyramids” of dead Blue-throated Piping Guans. The species has already been extirpated from many locations in its original range, such as in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Espírito Santo, and southern Bahia.