Spotted Puffbird
Bucco tamatia
Compact, medium-sized bird with large head and bill. Easily identifiable by prominent black marks on sides of neck and extensively spotted underparts, as well as by shape and behavior. Generally inconspicuous; sits quietly in mid-story and understory, sallying to branches or foliage for large insects. Sometimes seen near arboreal termite nests, which it uses for nesting. Found in riverine forest and forests with sandy soils; also abandoned plantations in coastal regions. Song, usually given in pre-dawn darkness, is a two-noted phrase repeated in a long, rapid series.
Identification
The spotted puffbird is about 18 cm (7.1 in) long and weighs 33 to 42 g (1.2 to 1.5 oz). The nominate subspecies has a pale rufous forehead that becomes rufous spots on a dark brown background on the crown. Below that is a blackish band through the eye, below that a white stripe, and below that a black patch. The white stripe continues around the nape. The upperparts and wings are dark brown with some buffy scallops and the tail is dark brown with some buffy edges to the feathers. The chin is white, the throat rufous, the breast and flanks whitish with black spots and scales, and the belly and vent white with small black spots. The bill is black, the eye bright red, and the feet dark gray or greenish. B. t. pulmentum's throat is much paler than the nominate's, the forehead brighter, and the spotting heavier. B. t. hypnaleus is larger than the nominate but with a smaller bill, and the spotting on its underside is heavier especially on the breast.<p>The spotted puffbird's song is "a series of 10–20 soft, whistled 'chyoi' or 'puwéep' notes (c. 2 per second), weak and hesitant at first, then a few at lower pitch and slower, ending with c. 4 inflected 'pchooii, pchooii, pchooii, peejowee' whistles". It is usually sung at dawn and sometimes sung as a duet. It also makes "faint wheezy whistles" in a dispute.
Taxonomy
The spotted puffbird was described in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. In his Latin text Marcgrave used the name Tamatia Brasiliensibus where tamatia was the local name for the bird in the Tupi language. Later ornithologists such as Francis Willughby in 1678 and John Ray in 1713 based their own description on that by Marcgrave. In 1780 the French polymath Comte de Buffon described and illustrated Le Tamatia from a specimen that had been collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. When the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae in 1788 he included the spotted puffbird and cited the works by the earlier ornithologists. He placed the species with the other puffbirds in the genus Bucco and coined the binomial name Bucco tamatia.<p>The spotted puffbird has sometimes been placed in the genus Nystactes. It is closely related to the sooty-capped puffbird (B. noanamae).<p>Three subspecies are recognised:
- Scientific name
- Bucco tamatia
- Authority
- Gmelin, JF, 1788
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Bucconidae
- Genus
- Bucco
Range and habitat
The nominate subspecies of spotted puffbird is found from eastern Colombia east through Venezuela and the Guianas into Brazil and south in Brazil to the left (north) bank of the Amazon River. B. t. pulmentum is found from southeastern Colombia south through eastern Ecuador, northeastern Peru, and western Brazil into northeastern Bolivia. B. t. hypnaleus is found in Amazonian Brazil east of the Tapajós River. The species inhabits a variety of somewhat open landscapes such as várzea and igapó forests, mature secondary forest, savanna woodland, and gallery forest. It seldom occurs in the interior of dense forest. In elevation it generally ranges from sea level to 1,400 m (4,600 ft) but in Venezuela it usually occurs below 700 m (2,300 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The spotted puffbird usually forages from a low perch, sallying out to pluck prey from foliage or bark. It sometimes follows army ant swarms. Its diet includes many types of insects, other invertebrates such as spiders and scorpions, small lizards, and mistletoe berries.<p>The spotted puffbird's breeding season varies in different parts of its range, but in general is between March and September. It lays its clutch of two eggs in a chamber excavated in arboreal termitaria.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
White-faced Nunbird
Hapaloptila castanea
Rare and elusive denizen of Andean cloud forest; found at higher elevations than any other puffbird. Distinctive; note especially the stout, black bill bordered by white feathers, chestnut underparts, and red eye. Found inside forest, often near exposed earthen banks, which they favor as nesting sites. Remains motionless for extended periods before suddenly sallying out to catch an insect or other small animal. Typical song is a series of evenly spaced, mellow whistles that can be imitated.
Bates's Swift
Apus batesi
A small, entirely blackish swift with a slightly dusky throat and a deeply forked tail. Flies rapidly over lowland forest, occasionally gliding briefly. Most often found over lowland forests, where it nests in abandoned swallow nests such as those of Forest Swallow. In profile, similar to African Palm-Swift or Scarce Swift, but Bates’s Swift has wider wings and a bigger body, and is overall much darker.
Caracas Tapaculo
Scytalopus caracae
A typical tapaculo, in bad light a plain and dark small bird with short tail. In good view, mostly plain dark gray with brown and slightly barred belly. Female more barred than male, and juvenile mostly brown and markedly barred. Acts like a mouse, staying near the ground in dense understory of bamboo thickets in cloud forest. Song nasal and noisy, one of the signature sounds in the mountains near Caracas; one version a series of four notes “wu-E-e-wu” and the another a faster series of 6 notes “wu-wU-e-e-wu-wu”; varied calls, the most common a descending mechanical rattle. The only tapaculo in its limited range in the Coastal Cordillera of Venezuela.
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