This large guan lives in humid forests of Colombia and Venezuela. It has a dark rufous back and an olive-brown breast.
The back is dark rufous and the breast is olive-brown.
A2026 study compared mountain populations of Band-tailed Guans, examining appearance, dawn songs and wing-whirring.
Andean-group songs had shorter, more closely spaced notes. Santa Marta songs had longer notes with frequency jumps. Wing-whirring formed two segments in the former and one in the latter.
Combined with morphological differences, the findings supported the authors’ proposal to recognize the Santa Marta population as a separate species.
IUCN Red List (BirdLife listing) · Least Concern · Global
BirdLife lists Least Concern, with a decreasing trend. Forest loss and degradation from agriculture, ranching, logging and burning, together with hunting for food, are threats.