Cariama cristata
Silhouette: George Edward Lodge (vectorized by T. Michael Keesey) · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
The red-legged seriema (Cariama cristata), also known as the crested cariama and crested seriema, is a mostly predatory terrestrial bird in the seriema family (Cariamidae), included in the Gruiformes in the old polyphyletic circumscription but recently placed in a distinct order: Cariamiformes (along with three extinct families).
The red-legged seriema is widely distributed in South America, occurring in central and eastern Brazil through eastern Bolivia and Paraguay to Uruguay and central Argentina (south to La Pampa). Like the black-legged seriema, farmers often use them as guard animals to protect poultry from predators and sometimes human intruders.
The red-legged seriema was described in 1766 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae. He coined the binomial name Palamedea cristata. The red-legged seriema is now the only species placed in the genus Cariama that was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The specific epithet cristata is Latin for "crested", "plumed" or "tufted". The German naturalist Georg Marcgrave used the Latin word Cariama for the red-legged seriema in his Historia naturalis... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emas National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Serra da Canastra National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Chapada Diamantina National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Chapada dos Guimarães National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Serra dos Órgãos National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Itatiaia National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 7 | Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Iguaçu National Park | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Iguazú National Park | 🇦🇷 Argentina |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Recife | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Campo Grande | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Niterói | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 4 | Campinas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Belo Horizonte | 🇧🇷 Brazil |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Disney's Animal Kingdom | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Pairi Daiza | 🇧🇪 Belgium | |
| 3 | Prague Zoo | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 4 | National Zoological Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 5 | ZooParc de Beauval | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 6 | Natura Artis Magistra | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | |
| 7 | Parque das Aves | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 8 | Le Pal | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 9 | Ostrava Zoo | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 10 | Jihlava Zoo | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 11 | Parc des oiseaux | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 12 | Zoo Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 13 | Jardín Botánico y Zoológico de Asunción | 🇵🇾 Paraguay | |
| 14 | African Lion Safari | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 15 | Toronto Zoo | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 16 | Columbus Zoo and Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 17 | Poznań Nowe Zoo | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 18 | Bronx Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 19 | Parque Zoobotânico de Teresina | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 20 | Badoca Safari Park | 🇵🇹 Portugal | |
| 21 | Bratislava Zoo | 🇸🇰 Slovakia | |
| 22 | Brookfield Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 23 | Parc zoologique de Montpellier | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 24 | Sedgwick County Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 25 | Bearizona | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 26 | Dallas Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 27 | Wildlife World Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 28 | Flamingo Land Resort | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 29 | Selwo Aventura | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 30 | Košice Zoo | 🇸🇰 Slovakia | |
| 31 | Granby Zoo | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 32 | Kyiv Zoo | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 33 | Saint Louis Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 34 | Berlin Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 35 | Woodland Park Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 36 | Zoológico de Goiânia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 37 | Paignton Zoo | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 38 | Gramado Zoo | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 39 | Brevard Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 40 | Parque Zoobotânico Getúlio Vargas | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 41 | Târgu Mureș Zoo | 🇷🇴 Romania | |
| 42 | ZooTampa | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 43 | Lisbon Zoo | 🇵🇹 Portugal | |
| 44 | The Green Zoo Wuppertal | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 45 | Zoológico Dois Irmãos | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 46 | ABQ BioPark Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 47 | Hanover Zoo | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 48 | Schönbrunn Zoo | 🇦🇹 Austria | |
| 49 | Łódź Zoo | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 50 | Zoomarine | 🇵🇹 Portugal |
No species of the same family or order lives in Itatiaia National Park, so these are its closest relatives here: other birds.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Red-legged Seriema sighting in Itatiaia National Park on a given day, based on 10 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 317th most-seen of the 352 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
Any time of year
In every month with enough records, under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Red-legged Seriema in Itatiaia National Park on a given day, so our monthly data shows no clear season.
Between 2 and 5 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Red-legged Seriema sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
6th of 9
Of the 9 parks where we can rate Red-legged Seriema sightings, Itatiaia National Park ranks 6th at under 5%. The best odds are in Emas National Park (Brazil, about 60%), Serra da Canastra National Park (Brazil, about 60%) and Chapada Diamantina National Park (Brazil, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Red-legged Seriema is recorded against all the birds logged in Itatiaia National Park (10 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
