- Pteroglossus inscriptus
Identification
33–40 cm (13-15¾ in)
- Yellow bill with a row of short black lines (the "letters") on the upper mandible leading away from the edge
- Yellow underparts
- Blue eye patch
Male has a black face while the female has a chestnut face.
Immature is similar to adult but lacks obvious "letters" along the upper mandible.
Similar Species
Ivory-billed Aracari has smaller black marks on its bill a broad red breast band. Green Aracari has its upper mandible chestnut red, with a broad yellow stripe along the top and lacks the "letter" markings and the base of its the mandible is reddish. Ranges do not overlap.
Distribution
South America: found in Colombia to Bolivia and the Amazon Basin to Brazil.
Taxonomy
Western Amazonian subspecies P. i. humboldti sometimes treated as a race of the Green Aracari and sometimes as a separate species, Humboldt’s Araçari.
Subspecies
There are 2 subspecies[1]:
- P. i. humboldti: Larger. Lower mandible black
- P. i. inscriptus: Smaller. Lower mandible mostly yellow with black marks
Habitat
Terra Firma forest. Primary lowland forest, which is seasonally flooded.
Behaviour
Photo © by Joseph Morlan
Rio Marañon, Paba Chiero Creek, Nauta, Loreto, Peru, 14 June 2019
Diet
Their diet consists primarily of fruit, with the addition of insects and nestlings of birds such as swallows and finches.
Breeding
Very poorly known. Believed to breed December to July in western Amazonia, and August to March in eastern Brazil. The nest is presumed to be in a cavity in a tree. One nest was observed in a solitary dead tree (Cedrela odorata) in a lake bed
Vocalisation
Usually silent. The primary call is described as "an often long-continued series of guttural cha notes" or a "series of electric grunts."
Movements
Resident.
References
- Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, S. M. Billerman, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2021. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2021. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
- Short, L.L. & Kirwan, G.M. (2019). Lettered Araçari (Pteroglossus inscriptus). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/56088 on 29 July 2019).
- del Hoyo, J., Collar, N. & Kirwan, G.M. (2019). Humboldt’s Araçari (Pteroglossus humboldti). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. (retrieved from https://www.hbw.com/node/467427 on 30 July 2019).
- Shick, J. (2014). Lettered Aracari (Pteroglossus inscriptus), version 1.0. In Neotropical Birds Online (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/nb.letara1.01
- Schulenberg, T. S. & Stotz, D. F. & Lane, D. F. & O'Neill, J. P. & Parker III, T. A. & Egg, A. B. (2010). Birds of Peru: Revised and Updated Edition. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691130231
Recommended Citation
- BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Lettered Aracari. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 29 May 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Lettered_Aracari
External Links
GSearch checked for 2020 platform.
