Definition of "seriema" []

• Either of two cranelike birds (Cariama cristata or Chunga burmeisteri) of southern South America, having a tuftlike crest at the base of the bill and living mostly on land where they feed on snakes, worms, and insects. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Some of the most distinctive birds in the hotspot include two very large species, the rhea (Rhea americana) and the red-legged seriema (Cariama cristata), neither of which are endemic."
• "The seriema-hoatzin clade was closely allied with a cuckoo-turaco clade."
• "Tonni & Tambussi (1988) described the foot morphology of the Miocene psilopterine Psilopterus and showed that its foot claws were nearly identical to those of the living seriema Cariama cristata."