structural:summarization
Range

Tinamous are exclusively neotropical and all 47 species live in South America, Mexico, and Central America. The range of the northernmost species extends to Mexico but not much further north than the Tropic of Cancer. Chilean tinamous have been introduced to Easter Island. The greatest concentration of species is in the tropics, and in particular the Amazon Basin. In the north, they tend to be forest or woodland birds, while in the south they prefer open habitats. Tinamous form the dominant group of terrestrial birds in South America, where they largely replace the Galliformes ecologically, with no other bird family there having comparable diversity, distribution, or suite of habitat adaptations. Rheas are only found in open country, curassows and guans are generally limited to forests, and the pheasant family is only represented by a few species in the north of the region.

They occur in a wide range of habitats. Members of the genera Tinamus, Nothocercus, and Crypturellus live in dense forests, with Nothocercus preferring high altitude, and members of most other genera in grassland, puna, montane forest, and savanna. Tinamotis and Nothoprocta prefer high altitude habitats, up to 5,000 m (16,000 ft), whereas the other steppe tinamous have a wide altitude range. Tinamous inhabit most parts of South and Central America, as well as the tropical regions of Mexico, with the exception of aquatic, snow-covered, and true desert habitats, and the southernmost tip of Patagonia.