Black-necked Aracari
Pteroglossus aracari
Multicolored aracari with a black head, an olive-green back, and a bicolored bill: pale above and black below. Note the red band across its yellow underparts and its red rump. Commonly encountered in a variety of different forested habitats, where it typically gathers in small noisy groups, occasionally with other aracari and toucan species at fruiting trees.
Identification
The black-necked aracari is 43 to 46 cm (17 to 18 in) long and weighs 177 to 325 g (6.2 to 11 oz). Males and females have the same plumage and bill coloration, though the female's bill is shorter. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a black head, neck, and throat with chestnut-black ear coverts. Their brown eye is surrounded by blue-gray to black bare skin. Their upperparts are mostly green with a red rump. Their underparts are yellow with a wide red band across the lower breast and greenish thighs. Their bill has an ivory maxilla with a black culmen and base and a black mandible; a vertical white line is at the bill's base. Immatures' black and green plumage is sootier than adults' and the red and yellow paler. Their bill is browner without the "teeth" and has no basal white line.<p>Subspecies P. a. atricollis has a wider brown culmen stripe on the bill than the nominate, red-brown ear coverts, and cinnamon-rusty thighs. P. a. wiedii's culmen stripe is slightly wider than the nominate's and it has chestnut ear coverts, chin, and upper throat instead of black.
Taxonomy
The black-necked aracari was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. He placed it with the toucans in the genus Ramphastos and coined the binomial name Ramphastos aracari. Linnaeus based his description on the "Aracari" that had been described and illustrated by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in 1648 and the "Toucan or Brazilian Pye" that had been described and illustrated by the English naturalist George Edwards in 1747. The black-necked aracari is now placed in genus Pteroglossus that was introduced in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek pteron meaning "feather" with glōssa meaning "tongue". The specific epithet aracari comes from Arassari, the name of the species in the Tupi language. Alternative common names include Wied's aracari and Maximilian's aracari.<p>Three subspecies of black-necked aracari are recognized:<p>All three subspecies have at times been treated as individual species. Further subspecies divisions have been proposed but not accepted.
- Scientific name
- Pteroglossus aracari
- Authority
- (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Order
- Piciformes
- Family
- Ramphastidae
- Genus
- Pteroglossus
Range and habitat
The subspecies of black-necked aracari are found thus:<p>The species inhabits a wide variety of semi-open landscapes including edges and clearings in wet and sand-ridge forests, secondary forest, woodlands, cerrado, gallery forest in savanna, and plantations of fruit trees like papaya. In elevation it mostly occurs from sea level to about 600 m (2,000 ft) but is found higher in Venezuela and the southeastern part of its range.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: declining.
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Brightly-colored accentor which combines the head pattern of Black-throated Accentor with the orange breast of Robin Accentor. Bright orange breast and eyebrow are striking, contrasting sharply with the white throat and streaked brown back. Generally, quite common in high-altitude deciduous forests where it breeds. Descends into lower, often scrubbier, habitats during the winter.
Long-tailed Thrush
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Earthen-toned and rather heavy-bellied thrush. Matte brown above and white below with dense black scaling on the underparts. Chinese Thrush and species of the Alpine Thrush complex can be similar; note Long-tailed’s wingbars, fine scaling (not solid dots), and proportionally longer tail. Forages on the forest floor in foothill and montane forest, especially in areas with rhododendrons and conifers; descends in elevation in the winter. Song sounds tired and drawn-out, consisting of long buzzy notes and hoarse warbling.
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