The barred puffbird (''Nystalus radiatus'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family

Bucconidae The puffbirds and their relatives in the family Bucconidae are tropical tree-dwelling insectivorous birds that are found from South America up to Mexico. Together with their closest relatives, the jacamars, they form a divergent lineage within th ...

, the puffbirds, nunlets, and nunbirds. It is found in

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

and

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

Taxonomy and systematics

In the first half of the twentieth century the barred puffbird was treated by some authors as belonging to genus ''Ecchaunornis'', but since then was returned to genus ''Nystalus''. It is

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 "unisp ...

. A proposed subspecies, "''N. r. fulvidus''" is probably a color morph.Rasmussen, P. C., N. Collar, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Barred Puffbird (''Nystalus radiatus''), 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.barpuf1.01 retrieved November 2, 2021

Description

The barred puffbird is about long and weighs about . Its crown is blackish with dark rufous bars. The upper nape is black, the lower nape yellowish red, and the upper mantle black. The rest of the upperparts and the wings are dark chestnut with narrow black bands. The tail is long, narrow, and chestnut with narrow black bands. The chin is whitish. The face and underparts are pale rufous with fine blackish bars except in the center of the belly. The bill is grayish yellow to blackish, the eye creamy yellow, and the feet greenish gray. The "''fulvidus''" morph is a deeper rufous overall.

Distribution and habitat

The barred puffbird is resident from central Panama into northern Colombia and through western Colombia into western Ecuador. It inhabits the lower levels of several semi-open landscapes including the borders of humid and wet forest, streamside vegetation, clearings with scattered trees, and the edges of forest trails. In Ecuador it has regularly been recorded perched on wires in agricultural areas. In elevation it is usually found up to but has been recorded locally in the

Mindo, Ecuador Mindo (also known as the Mindo Valley) is a mountainous watershed in the western slopes of the Andes, where two of the most biologically diverse ecoregions in the world meet: the Chocoan lowlands and the Tropical Andes. In this transitional a ...

region as high as and once at in Colombia.

Behavior

Feeding

The barred puffbird's foraging behavior has not been documented; other puffbirds typically hunt by sallying from a perch. Its diet includes large insects of several

orders Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * H ...

and small lizards.Winkler, D. W., S. M. Billerman, and I.J. Lovette (2020). Puffbirds (Bucconidae), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (S. M. Billerman, B. K. Keeney, P. G. Rodewald, and T. S. Schulenberg, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.buccon2.01 retrieved November 2, 2021

Breeding

The only described nest of a barred puffbird was a cup of dead leaves. It was in a spherical chamber at the end of a narrow tunnel excavated in a clay bank and partially shaded by vegetation. It contained two well-grown nestlings.

Vocalization

The barred puffbird's song is "a long, slow, ventriloquial and very human-like wolf-whistle, 'phweeeeeet-weeeeeeuuuu'". Near the nest it made low-pitched "werr" and "werr werr woo" calls.

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

has assessed the barred puffbird as being of Least Concern. Its population is estimated at at least 50,000 mature individuals but is believed to be decreasing. It occurs in several protected areas in Colombia and Ecuador.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q954033 barred puffbird Birds of Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena barred puffbird barred puffbird Taxonomy articles created by Polbot