White-chested Puffbird
Malacoptila fusca
Brown-and-white streaked bird with a large head and yellowish bill; white crescent on chest is helpful for identification but can be difficult to see. Inhabits lower and middle levels of tall rainforest, where it is easily overlooked as it sits motionless for long periods before darting to tree trunks, foliage, or ground for large insect and small vertebrate prey. Not common and usually encountered alone. Song is a long, very rapid series of soft piping notes, slowly falling in pitch and only audible at close range; calls include a high, thin, descending whistle, repeated at long intervals. Unlikely to be confused in most of range; distinguished from others in genus by streaked back.
Identification
The white-chested puffbird is about 18 cm (7.1 in) long and weighs about 44 g (1.6 oz). The head, upperparts, and wing coverts are dark brown, with the crown being blackish brown. Pale shafts to the feathers give a streaked appearance. The tail is warm brown. It has a whitish "whisker" and chin and a thin white crescent across the upper breast. The underparts are dirty white or buff with brown streaks and mottling. The bill is yellow-orange with a black tip, the eye reddish brown, yellow, or red, and the legs and feet yellow olive to pale olive.<p>The song is "a long, descending musical trill: tree'e'e'e'e'e'e'e'e'ew." Its calls include "a descending, high, mewing whistle peeww."
Taxonomy
The white-chested puffbird was formally described in 1788 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the other puffbirds in the genus Bucco and coined the binomial name Bucco fuscus. The specific epithet is Latin meaning "brown" or "dusky". Gmelin based his description on the "white-breasted barbet" that had been described in 1782 by the English ornithologist John Latham from a specimen that had been collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The white-chested puffbird is now one of seven species placed in the genus Malacoptila that was introduced by George Gray in 1841.<p>The white-chested puffbird and the semicollared puffbird (Malacoptila semicincta) were considered to be conspecific by James Peters in 1958 but they are now treated as a superspecies. The white-chested puffbird is generally considered to be monotypic, though a subspecies M. f. venezuelae was proposed in 1947.
- Scientific name
- Malacoptila fusca
- Authority
- (Gmelin, JF, 1788)
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Bucconidae
- Genus
- Malacoptila
Range and habitat
The white-chested puffbird is found in two large disjunct areas. One is from eastern Colombia and southwestern Venezuela south through eastern Ecuador and central Peru as far as the valley of the Apurímac River. The other is in the lower Amazon Basin from the Guianas east and south into Brazil's Amazonas and Pará states. It inhabits the understory of tropical evergreen forest, both terra firme and várzea. It is a bird of the lowlands. In elevation it ranges up to 200 m (660 ft) in Venezuela, 600 m (2,000 ft) in Colombia, 900 m (3,000 ft) in Ecuador (though locally to 1,200 m (3,900 ft)), and 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in Peru.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The white-chested puffbird hunts from a perch several meters above the ground, remaining motionless for long periods before sallying to capture prey on the ground or from vegetation. It then usually flies to a different perch. It sometimes follows army ant swarms. Its diet has not been described in detail, but it is probably mostly insects with some small invertebrates.<p>Essentially nothing is known about the white-chested puffbird's breeding phenology. It is thought to nest in a burrow in the ground as does its close relative the white-whiskered puffbird (M. panamensis).
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Orange-breasted Thornbird
Phacellodomus ferrugineigula
Medium-sized, long-tailed thornbird with a brown body and a rufous forehead and throat. The tail is rufous with a brown center. Resembles Orange-eyed Thornbird, but has dark eyes. An inhabitant of wet marshy areas with scattered trees, where unlike others thornbirds it builds large woven nests of grass, leaves, and stems. Song is a series of loud ringing notes, usually delivered as a duet.
White-rumped Triller
Lalage leucopygialis
Medium-sized. Male is a black-and-white bird with black upperparts, a large white rump, a clean-cut white eyebrow, and extensive white markings on black wings. Underside white. Female differs in having a gray back and faint breast barring. Juvenile is a brownish version of female. Found in forest edges, cultivated areas, and mangroves in lowlands and lower foothills, usually singly or in pairs. White rump, broader eyebrow, and white markings extending to rear of wing separate it from male White-shouldered Triller. Gives a staccato chatter, “chit-chit-chit-chit-chit,” as well as harsh “chitup” calls.
Common Reed Warbler
Acrocephalus scirpaceus
Rather plain medium-sized warbler: warm brown above with narrow pale spectacles, pale buffy below. Can be very difficult to separate from other reed warbler species. Most populations breed in reed or sedge beds, both pure and mixed with bushes, often wandering to adjacent scrub and thickets. “Mangrove” Reed Warbler is a resident in mangroves along the Red Sea. Non-breeding migratory birds may wind up in a wide range of habitats, from marshes to mangroves, to acacia scrub and cultivation. Often heard but can be hard to see: prolonged song much like Sedge Warbler but more even-paced and melodic, without rough and jerky phrases. Calls include a low “chuk” and rattled “chrrt.”
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