Red-necked Aracari

Identification

The red-necked aracari is about 36 to 40 cm (14 to 16 in) long and weighs 112 to 171 g (4.0 to 6.0 oz). The bill of the nominate subspecies has a yellow to greenish white maxilla with black and white along the edge that resembles teeth. The mandible has a white base that angles under the black of the rest of the mandible. Adult males have a blackish crown and dark brown face, chin, and throat. Their eye is surrounded by bare blue to greenish gray skin. Their nape and breast are red; yellow and black bands separate the latter from the throat. The rest of their upperparts are dark green and their underparts are yellow below the breast. Adult females have a browner crown, a lighter face and throat, and a narrower yellow band above the breast than males. Immatures are duller and browner than adults and are orange where adults are red.<p>Subspecies P. b. reichenowi is similar to the nominate but has no yellow band above the breast and less extensive red on the breast. Its bill has a jagged appearance near the base of the mandible where the black and white meet. P. b. sturmii is larger than the nominate and has a wider yellow band above the red breast. The "teeth" on the maxilla are less apparent and the mandible is all black except for an orange-yellow band at its base and a pale tip.

Taxonomy

The International Ornithological Committee (IOC), the Clements taxonomy, and the South American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society (SACC) recognize three subspecies of red-necked aracari:<p>BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World treats subspecies P. b. sturmii as a separate species, the "western red-necked araçari", and the other two subspecies as the "eastern red-necked araçari".<p>This article follows the IOC et al. three-subspecies model.

Scientific name

Pteroglossus bitorquatus

Authority

Vigors, 1826

Order

Piciformes

Family

Ramphastidae

Genus

Pteroglossus

Range and habitat

The subspecies of red-necked aracari are found thus:<p>The red-necked aracari inhabits a variety of forest types from the lowlands to hilly terrain, primarily moist tropical terra firme forest but also gallery forest in cerrado, dense bamboo, and mature secondary forest. In elevation it ranges from sea level to about 800 m (2,600 ft).

Migration

Resident species

Behavior

The red-necked aracari is probably sedentary, with limited local movements.<p>The red-necked aracari forages from the forest mid level to the canopy, alone, in pairs, or in a small group. Its diet not well known but is primarily fruit and also probably includes insects, eggs, and small vertebrates.<p>The red-necked aracari's breeding season in much of its range spans from February to August but in some areas is April to September and in Bolivia is from July to December. It is assumed to nest in tree cavities like other toucans. Nothing else is known about its breeding biology.<p>The red-necked aracari has a wide variety of vocalizations, variously repeated "tik or tek notes", repeated "ttak or tyat", and "single ik notes, a tweah, and growl-like, chattery dcheeeaah calls."

Conservation

Population trend

declining