Introducing Chauna torquata, the Southern Screamer, also known as the Crested Screamer.

An aptly named bird, this South American relative of geese, ducks, and other Anseriforms is a large vegetation-eater whose screams can be heard even two miles away. Local hunters in its range in Brazil have a healthy distaste for the bird, whose meat is said to be not worth the hunt; Screamers act as sentinels and give off their loud alarm calls. Its long legs and only partially webbed feet distinguish it from geese, as does its bare face. Screamers have been considered to be primitive waterfowl, but other research indicates that they may actually be further along than their relatives.

Screamers inhabit the Pantanal, a sprawling wetland of western Brazil, northern Paraguay, and eastern Bolivia with a biodiversity rivaling the Amazon for sheer richness of species. Standing out as one of the most obvious of the Pantanal birds, Screamers tend to browse the vegetation in pairs during nesting, and in groups of up to 100 outside of the nesting season. Though heavy birds at 6-9 pounds, Screamers are capable of flight. Sharp spurs protrude from the front of their wings, which are used in dominance displays against rivals, and potentially for defense. Pairs join in very loud courtship duets. A clutch of 2-7 eggs is laid in a stick nest, and like other waterfowl, the young are precocial, hatching with open eyes and fuzzy down and able to leave the nest and feed on their own within an hour.

Though birdwatching trips to the Pantanal are nearly guaranteed a sighting of a Southern Screamer, they are also very common in zoos and private waterfowl collections. Fortunately for the Screamer, its population is large and stable enough to be rated a species of Least Concern.