West Mexican chachalaca- looks like a chicken to me.

Could this be a stewing pot for this bird?

While on an excursion in Puerto Vallarta, we had lunch on a private beach south of the city.  There were numerous gangly birds running around the area, completely at home near people.  They would hop up on plates with bits of food and take whatever was there, or fight amongst themselves for anything larger than a good-sized crumb.  You could think of them as chicken-like pigeons.  I looked them up; they are west Mexican chachalacas.  My bird book didn't do a very good job of imaging them; I had to use Google Lens to figure it out.  

The bird is endemic to the southern area of West Mexico.  To my knowledge, they are not found anywhere else.  They do not appear to be great flyers and spend most of their time on the ground or close to the forest floor.  They eat a variety of food, including fruits, seeds, insects, and vegetation.  The fact that they were eating cooked chicken was not surprising, although it was somewhat cannibalistic.

And yes, they are hunted and eaten, although I cannot imagine one producing much in the way of meat.  A good-sized one may weigh in at just under two pounds.  By the time it is dressed, I can't imagine there being more than a few ounces of meat at best.  The bird is not under threat; the number of birds being taken as food does not seem to create any concern in their population.

I wonder if they are tasty.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com