Blue-cheeked Jacamar
Galbula cyanicollis
Distinctive, oddly proportioned bird, with a small head and long needle-like bill. Green above and rusty below, with blue cheeks. The amount of black on the yellow bill is variable. Usually seen sitting quietly in the lower levels of humid forest and sometimes seasonally flooded forests, where it captures prey by flycatching. Sings a high-pitched “peea peea-pee-pee-te-t-t-e’e’e’e’e’e” that accelerates gradually and ends with a rattling trill.
Identification
The blue-necked jacamar is 19 to 22 cm (7.5 to 8.7 in) long and weighs 21 to 26 g (0.74 to 0.92 oz). The male's upper parts are shiny green and the underparts chestnut. The face is steely blue to green on an east to west gradient. The female is duller and its underparts are tawny buff.
Taxonomy
The blue-necked jacamar is monotypic. It and the yellow-billed jacamar (Galbula albirostris) were at one time considered conspecific but have been treated as a superspecies since approximately 1974.
- Scientific name
- Galbula cyanicollis
- Authority
- Cassin, 1851
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Galbulidae
- Genus
- Galbula
Range and habitat
The blue-necked jacamar occurs east of the Andes and south of the Amazon River. It is found in eastern Peru, far northern Bolivia, and in Brazil east to Maranhão and south to Rondônia and northern Mato Grosso. It inhabits the interior of terra firme and várzea forests. There it is found in the lower strata and often in small gaps. It also occurs in gallery forest in the cerrado of Brazil. In elevation it ranges up to 900 m (3,000 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The blue-necked jacamar's diet is a large variety of insects. It perches on exposed branches and sallies from there to catch its flying prey.<p>Two blue-necked jacamar nest burrows were found in arboreal termite nests in Brazil, one in June and the other in October; each held two eggs. Birds in breeding condition were found in September.<p>The voice of the blue-necked jacamar is essentially the same as that of the yellow-billed. A song is here [1] and a call here[2].
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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