Red-legged Seriema
Photo: Wagner Machado Carlos Lemes from Goiânia, Brazil · CC BY 2.0

Seriemas

Red-legged Seriema

Cariama cristata

LCLeast Concern
Family
Seriemas (Cariamidae)
Order
Cariamiformes

Overview

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.

Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Range and habitat

Central and eastern Brazil to Bolivia, Paraguay, and central Argentina.

Range description: AviList Global Avian Checklist.

Sources and further reading

Last updated September 29, 2026.