The black-breasted puffbird (''Notharchus pectoralis'') 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

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 ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

Taxonomy and systematics

The black-breasted puffbird 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 ...

. It is closely related to the brown-banded puffbird (''N. ordii'') and some authors have proposed that they form a

superspecies In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

.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 August 2021. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved 24 August 2021Rasmussen, P. C. and N. Collar (2020). Black-breasted Puffbird (''Notharchus pectoralis''), 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.blbpuf1.01 retrieved 29 October 2021

Description

The black-breasted puffbird is long and weighs between . The plumage is mostly glossy blue-black, with a white collar, cheeks, throat, and belly, a blue-black breast band, and a black tail with white tips on the feathers. The closed wing and rump show narrow white scallops. The flanks are dark gray with buffy marks. The heavy bill is black, as are the feet, and the iris of the eye is dark brown or red. The two sexes are the same, and the plumage of juvenile birds has not been described.

Distribution and habitat

The black-breasted puffbird is found from the

Canal Zone The Panama Canal Zone (), also known as just the Canal Zone, was a concession of the United States located in the Isthmus of Panama that existed from 1903 to 1979. It consisted of the Panama Canal and an area generally extending on each side o ...

of Panama east into central Colombia and south through western Colombia into northwestern Ecuador. It inhabits humid lowland

rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...

and

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has regenerated through largely natural processes after human-caused Disturbance (ecology), disturbances, such as Logging, timber harvest or agriculture clearing, or ...

from sea level to . It is seldom found near forest edges, and is more restricted to forests than its close relatives, but is often found near running water. It is usually found in the canopy, but will descend to the forest floor to pursue prey flushed by

army ant The name army ant (or legionary ant or ''marabunta'') is applied to over 200 ant species in different lineages. Because of their aggressive predatory foraging groups, known as "raids", a huge number of ants forage simultaneously over a limited ...

swarms.

Behavior

Feeding

The black-breasted puffbird hunts from a perch by diving on its prey and will also follow army ant swarms. It beats its catch on the perch before eating it. It takes a range of prey species, including centipedes and millipedes, scorpions, spiders, cockroaches, mantises, grasshoppers, beetles, and lizards.

Breeding

The black-breasted puffbird's breeding season spans from March to May in Colombia and March to July in Panama. Both parents excavate the nesting burrow in an arboreal

termitarium Termites are a group of detritophagous eusocial cockroaches which consume a variety of decaying plant material, generally in the form of wood, leaf litter, and soil humus. They are distinguished by their moniliform antennae and the soft-bo ...

, typically from high. The clutch size is three eggs, but no more than two fledged young from a brood have been observed. Both parents incubate the eggs.

Vocalization

The black-breasted puffbird's song is "10–30 loud 'kwee' whistles followed by 3 or so lower, slower 'whew' whistles ending with a few fading 'wheet-whew' wolf-whistles". It also makes a "rasping 'chah-chah-chah call when disputing territory.

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 black-breasted puffbird as being of

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

. It has a large range and a population of at least 50,000 mature individuals, though the latter is believed to be decreasing. The species is generally uncommon, but may be overlooked frequently due to its habit of remaining motionless for hours. Habitat disturbance is a threat.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1265418 black-breasted puffbird Birds of Panama Birds of Colombia Birds of Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena black-breasted puffbird black-breasted puffbird Taxonomy articles created by Polbot