The brown-mandibled aracari (''Pteroglossus mariae'') is a

near-passerine Near passerines and higher land-bird assemblage are terms of traditional, pre-cladistic taxonomy that have often been given to tree-dwelling birds or those most often believed to be related to the true passerines (order Passeriformes) owing to mo ...

bird in the toucan family

Ramphastidae Toucans (, ) are members of the Neotropical near passerine bird family Ramphastidae. The Ramphastidae are most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five gen ...

. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, and Peru.Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/ retrieved November 10, 2022

Taxonomy and systematics

The brown-mandibled aracari is considered a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

species by the

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...

. However, The South American Classification Committee of the

American Ornithological Society The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

, the

Clements taxonomy ''The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World'' is a book by Jim Clements which presents a list of the bird species of the world. The most recent printed version is the sixth edition (2007), but has been updated yearly, the last version in 2022 ...

, and

BirdLife International BirdLife International is a global partnership of non-governmental organizations that strives to conserve birds and their habitats. BirdLife International's priorities include preventing extinction of bird species, identifying and safeguarding ...

's ''

Handbook of the Birds of the World The ''Handbook of the Birds of the World'' (HBW) is a multi-volume series produced by the Spanish publishing house Lynx Edicions in partnership with BirdLife International. It is the first handbook to cover every known living species of bird. T ...

'' (HBW) treat it as a subspecies of the

ivory-billed aracari The ivory-billed aracari or ivory-billed araçari (''Pteroglossus azara'') is a near-passerine bird in the toucan family Ramphastidae. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Il ...

(''P. azara'').Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 24 July 2022. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved July 24, 2022HBW and BirdLife International (2022) Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 7. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v7_Dec22.zip retrieved December 13, 2022 The brown-mandibled aracari and the two subspecies of ivory-billed aracari recognized by the IOC have all at times been treated as species, but all three taxa interbreed where their ranges overlap.Short, L.L. (2020). Ivory-billed Aracari (''Pteroglossus azara''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.ivbara1.01 retrieved December 21, 2022

Description

The brown-mandibled aracari is long and weighs . It does not appreciably differ from the ivory-billed aracari in length, weight, or plumage but only in bill color. Adult males have a black cap above a chestnut head and throat, maroon-red nape and upper back, green lower back, and red rump. They have a narrow black band under the throat, a wide red band on the upper breast, a wide black band on the lower breast, a yellow belly, and green thighs. Adult females have a dark brown cap and a narrower black band below the throat than males. The bills of both sexes have a yellow to ivory

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The t ...

with black and white markings on the edge that resemble teeth. Its

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower tooth, teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movabl ...

is mostly orange-brown with an ivory or yellow tip and a vertical yellow line at its base.

Distribution and habitat

The brown-mandibled aracari is found south of the Amazon River from eastern Peru to the Rio Madeira in western Brazil and south to central Bolivia. It inhabits a variety of forest landscapes including '' varzea'',

gallery forest A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...

, and

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...

, and to a lesser extent ''

terra firme Terra may often refer to: * Terra (mythology), primeval Roman goddess * An alternate name for planet Earth, as well as the Latin name for the planet Terra may also refer to: Geography Astronomy * Terra (satellite), a multi-national NASA scienti ...

'', bamboo, cloudforest, and plantations. It is more common in early- to mid-successional forest than mature. In elevation it is mostly found below but is regularly found to .

Behavior

Movement

The brown-mandibled aracari is believed to be a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The brown-mandibled aracari forages in the forest's upper level and the canopy, typically in pairs or in a small group. There are few details known of its diet but it appears to be mostly fruit with some

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chitin, o ...

Breeding

The brown-mandibled aracari's breeding season spans from February to August. It is assumed to nest in tree cavities like other toucans. Its clutch size is two to four eggs. Nothing else is known about its breeding biology.

Vocalization

What is thought to be the brown-mandibled aracari's song is "a series of 2–6 wailing 'twaaa-a-a' or 'tweee-ee' or 'traaa-at' notes". Other vocalizations include "rattles, grunt-like contact notes, nasal 'nyek', purr-like notes, 'kyeek' alarm, ndpure rattles 'bddddt'".

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

follows HBW taxonomy and so does not separately assess the ivory-billed and brown-mandibled aracaris. Taken as a whole it has a very large range, and though its population size is not known it is believed to be stable. No immeditate threats have been identified. The " ried habitats utilized and changing nature of its successional habitats suggest that hespecies is not likely to become threatened in near future.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q284182 brown-mandibled aracari Birds of the Amazon Basin Birds of the Bolivian Amazon Birds of the Peruvian Amazon brown-mandibled aracari Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN