Groove-billed Toucanet
Aulacorhynchus sulcatus
Small green toucan with bluish ocular area and pale bluish-gray throat. Tail tip tinged blue; bill blackish with dark red (Venezuelan Coastal Cordillera) or yellow (Santa Marta and Andes region). Usually in pairs or small groups, moving or feeding in the canopy. Occurs in humid tropical forests in foothills and highlands. Song a repetitive, raspy croak. Distinguished from Emerald Toucanet and Crimson-rumped Toucanet mainly by green undertail coverts and rump and bluish tail tip.
Identification
The groove-billed toucanet is 33 to 37 cm (13 to 15 in) long and weighs 130 to 200 g (4.6 to 7.1 oz). Its grooved culmen and mandible give it its English name. In the nominate subspecies and A. s. erythrognathus, most of the bill is wine-red to brown-red with a diagonal black stripe on the mandible. The nominate's bill also has a vertical white stripe at its base. In A. s. calorhynchus the bill is mostly yellow with a reduced amount of black, some orange-red at the base of the mandible, and a white stripe like the nominate's. All subspecies are overall mostly green, with the underparts being lighter and the undertail coverts yellower. The nominate subspecies has a white throat, some gold-bronze on the face, and bare blue skin around the brownish eye. A. s. erythrognathus has essentially the same plumage but with less gold-bronze on the face. A. s. calorhynchus also has similar plumage to the nominate but is larger than it and A. s. erythrognathus.
Taxonomy
The groove-billed toucanet was originally described in the genus Pteroglossus. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC), the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society, and the Clements taxonomy recognize these three subspecies:<p>A. s. calorhynchus was formerly treated as a separate species, "yellow-billed toucanet", by most taxonomists but was merged into the groove-billed toucanet starting in 2012. BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World retains it as a species.<p>Subspecies A. s. erythrognathus might warrant consideration as a separate species because its voice is different from that of the other two subspecies.
- Scientific name
- Aulacorhynchus sulcatus
- Authority
- (Swainson, 1820)
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Ramphastidae
- Genus
- Aulacorhynchus
Range and habitat
The subspecies of groove-billed toucanet are found thus:<p>The species primarily inhabits humid montane forest but is also found in semi-open landscapes like secondary forest, forest edges and nearby isolated trees, and gardens. It shuns large open areas. In elevation it mostly ranges between 900 and 2,000 m (3,000 and 6,600 ft) but occurs as low as sea level and as high as about 2,400 m (7,900 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The groove-billed toucanet is generally non-migratory but occasionally moves to lower parts of its elevational range in the rainy season.<p>The groove-billed toucanet forages at all levels of its habitat, sometimes in groups. It has been observed following army ant swarms. Its diet is not known in detail but the species is omnivorous, eating fruit, invertebrates, eggs, and small vertebrates.<p>Little is known about the groove-billed toucanet's breeding biology. Its season appears to be March to July in parts of its range but extends to August in northeastern Venezuela. In other parts of Venezuela it may nest as early as February and as late as October. It is believed to nest in tree cavities, either natural or those abandoned by woodpeckers. The nest, eggs, incubation period, and time to fledging are not known.<p>The groove-billed toucanet's song is "barking-growling notes or croaks...wik-wik- to waak-waak-", sometimes sung in duet. Male's voices are lower pitched than female's. A. s. erythrognathus' song sounds similar to those of the other subspecies but is apparently faster.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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