Tinamou
Feeding methods

Food is taken mainly off the ground but also off the vine. The birds may jump for fruit or, as with the Crypturellus species, jump up to a metre in height for insects. The main foraging technique is a slow walk with head down, pecking at the ground and looking up occasionally. Small animals are eaten whole, larger ones are beaten against the ground or pecked. Bills rather than feet are used to probe leaf litter and sift through soil 2 to 3 cm (0.8–1.2 in) deep.

The most frequent diggers are Rhynchotus, Nothura and Nothoprocta species, which are open country birds. They have their nostrils positioned at the base of the bills, a feature thought to be an adaptation to their digging. As with most birds, they swallow grit to aid their gizzards in digestion. Some species follow army ants, eating from the disturbance created. Others feed in the company of antbirds, formicariids, and ovenbirds. Nothura species, in particular, will follow livestock and eat the ticks that fall off them as well as the insects knocked off bushes as they pass.
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