Bare-throated bellbird


The bare-throated bellbird is a species of bird in the family Cotingidae. It is found in moist subtropical and tropical forests in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. The male has white plumage and bristly bluish-black bare skin around its eye, beak and throat. The female is more drab, being olive-brown above with streaked yellow underparts. The male has one of the loudest bird calls known, producing a metallic sound similar to a hammer striking an anvil. This bird feeds on fruit and plays a part in dispersing the seeds of forest trees. It is considered a vulnerable species because of loss of its forest habitat and collection for the pet bird trade.

Description

The male bird has striking white plumage and a bare bluish-black patch of skin around its eyes and beak and on its throat. The female is duller in colour with a black crown, olive-brown upper parts and yellowish underparts streaked with olive green. This bird is about long.
The male has one of the loudest calls of any bird - a sharp sound like that of a hammer striking an anvil or a bell, emitted by the male while it perches on a high branch in order to attract a mate. The sound is so loud, that it can be heard up to a mile away and can apparently cause damage to human hearing if heard from close range.

Distribution

The bare-throated bellbird is a native of Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest.

Behavior

It is threatened by habitat loss and by poaching for cage birds. It raises the attraction of collectors because of the adult males's showy coloration. A fruit-eating species, it acts in the ecology of the Atlantic rainforest as a dispersor of seeds. Despite its vulnerable status, it can be found in an unusual urban setting, a juvenile male having recently been photographed foraging in one of the campuses of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro set in an artificial island in the vicinity of the heavily polluted Guanabara Bay; another specimen had already been spotted in 2005 at the Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo