Groove-billed Ani | Crotophaga sulcirostris

Voice

The usual call is a liquid, two-syllable chee-ho or pee-djoo, the first syllable higher than the second, often repeated in quick succession by group members; the Spanish name pijuy imitates it. When alarmed a short, sharp chek. Also soft clucking between group members while foraging.

Identification

30–34 cm, about half of it tail. Entirely black, in good light with a purple or green gloss on the back and wings and fine scaling on the head and neck. The bill is black, deep and laterally compressed, with an evenly curved upper edge and three or four grooves on the side of the upper mandible, visible only at close range. The eye is dark. The wings are short and rounded; the tail is long, loosely attached and swings on landing. Flight is weak and fluttering, with short glides. The sexes are alike; young birds have a lower, smoother bill that still lacks the grooves.

Confusion species

Smooth-billed Ani Crotophaga ani, in Costa Rica, Panama and on some Caribbean islands, has a higher, smooth hump on the bill that rises above the crown line, no grooves, and a rising, whining oo-leek call; young birds without grooves are best told by call. Greater Ani Crotophaga major of Panama is much larger, blue-glossed and has a pale eye. Great-tailed Grackle Quiscalus mexicanus and Melodious Blackbird Dives dives have a thin, pointed bill and walk briskly on the ground.

Habitat

Open and semi-open country: pastures with scattered trees and hedgerows, savanna, field edges, dry forest and thorn scrub, forest edges, gardens, parks and village edges, also the edges of marshes and mangroves; from sea level to about 2300 m, mainly in the lowlands. Forages in small groups on and near the ground, often with grazing cattle, on grasshoppers and other insects, also spiders, lizards, seeds and fruit. A group consists of one to five breeding pairs, sometimes with helpers, which jointly defend a territory and lay their eggs in a single communal nest, a cup of twigs in a dense bush or tree.

Range and movements

Almost throughout the guide area: in Mexico on the Pacific side from Sonora and Sinaloa and on the Atlantic side from Nuevo León and Tamaulipas southwards, including the Yucatán Peninsula, and further in Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. Absent from the high mountains and the deserts of Baja California. Scarcer in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica and Panama, where Smooth-billed Ani is the common ani. Outside the guide area in southern Texas and further from northern Colombia and Venezuela along the western side of South America to Peru.

• Resident
• dark = core range, pale = thinly spread

How and when to look

In almost any pasture with bushes or trees in the lowlands, also at the edge of villages. Small groups often sit huddled together on an open branch or fence, sunning; the two-syllable chee-ho is usually the first sign of a group.

Conservation status

Least Concern. The species has a large range and benefits from open, human-modified land. In the guide area it is common almost everywhere in the lowlands.

Scientific name

Crotophaga sulcirostris | Swainson, 1827

Swainson described the species in 1827 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Crotophaga was introduced in 1758 by Linnaeus. Crotophaga is Greek, from krotōn 'tick' and -phagos '-eating': 'tick-eater', as anis were thought to feed on ticks. sulcirostris is Latin, from sulcus 'furrow' and rostrum 'bill', after the grooved bill. The specimen the first description was based on came from Temascaltepec, Mexico.