Seriema age of four to five months. It is unknown when fledged chicks reach sexual maturity. There are two living species of seriemas. The red-legged seriema, or crested cariama ("Cariama cristata") is found from eastern Brazil, to central Argentina. It is bigger and nests on the ground or in bushes or trees up to above the ground. The black-legged seriema ("Chunga burmeisteri") is found in northwest Argentina and Paraguay. It nests in trees. These birds are thought to be the closest living relatives of a group of gigantic (up to tall) carnivorous "terror birds", the phorusrhacids, which are known from fossils
Black-legged seriema as lizards and snakes. They supplement this diet with some plant material, too. They have a large, curved, and hyperextensible claw on the second digit of each hind foot. This claw resembles that of the ancient troodontidae dinosaurs, such as "Stenonychosaurus". If a piece of food is too large to be swallowed whole, the seriema will cut it apart with the sickle-claw. This claw is also used to kill prey, and climb trees. Farmers in South America often capture young seriemas from the wild, and tame them. They are then trained to guard the farm against potential predators, such as