The bare-necked umbrellabird (''Cephalopterus glabricollis'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the family Cotingidae. It is found in the

Talamancan montane forests The Talamancan montane forests ecoregion, in the tropical moist broadleaf forest biome, are in montane Costa Rica and western Panama in Central America. Setting The Talamancan montane forests cover a discontinuous area of in Cordilleran mounta ...

of Costa Rica and

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...

. Bare-necked umbrellabirds live only in forests and their diet consists mainly of fruits. Its natural

habitat In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...

s are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

Taxonomy and systematics

Cephalopterus glabricollis - Bare-necked Umbrellabird

The bare-necked umbrellabird is one of three species in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

'' Cephalopterus'', commonly known as the umbrellabirds. It was first described by

John Gould John Gould (; 14 September 1804 – 3 February 1881) was an English ornithologist. He published a number of monographs on birds, illustrated by plates produced by his wife, Elizabeth Gould, and several other artists, including Edward Lear, ...

in 1851, on the basis of specimens collected by Warzewickz at elevations of in

. The generic name ''Cephalopterus'' comes from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

κεφαλη (''kephalē''), meaning head, and πτερος (''pteros''), meaning feathered, referring to the head plumes of the

Amazonian umbrellabird The Amazonian umbrellabird (''Cephalopterus ornatus'') is a species of bird in the family Cotingidae native to the Amazon basin with a separate population on the eastern slopes of the Andes. The male bird is entirely black, with a black crest a ...

. The specific epithet ''glabricollis'' is from the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

''glaber'', meaning bald, and ''collis'', meaning necked. It is monotypic.

Description

The bare-necked umbrellabird is a large, bulky, and crow-like bird, being the largest

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by th ...

in its range. It is also among the largest of the

cotinga The cotingas are a large family, Cotingidae, of suboscine passerine birds found in Central America and tropical South America. Cotingas are birds of forests or forest edges, that are primary frugivorous. They all have broad bills with hooked t ...

s, with only the Amazonian umbrellabird being larger. The males are larger than the females, being in length and weighing , compared to the females' and .

Distribution and habitat

The bare-necked umbrellabird is found in

, Costa Rica, and southern

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the countr ...

. It inhabits the subcanopy to upper understory of

primary forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological feature ...

throughout its range, although some birds have been seen foraging in secondary forest. It can also be found in areas with dense understory and near fruiting trees. The species follows an annual

altitudinal migration Altitudinal migration is a short-distance animal migration from lower altitudes to higher altitudes and back. Altitudinal migrants change their elevation with the seasons making this form of animal migration seasonal. Altitudinal migration can be m ...

based on fruit availability, with most of the year being spent in lowlands between elevations of for males and at for females. During the breeding season between March–June, umbrellabird populations move higher up to elevations of , coinciding with the highest fruit availability in these areas.

Behavior and ecology

Diet

The bare-necked umbrellabird is mainly frugivorous, feeding on

Marcgraviaceae The Marcgraviaceae are a neotropical angiosperm family in the order Ericales. The members of the family are shrubs, woody epiphytes, and lianas, with alternate, pinnately nerved leaves. The flowers are arranged in racemes. The flowers are accomp ...

Urticaceae The Urticaceae are a family, the nettle family, of flowering plants. The family name comes from the genus ''Urtica''. The Urticaceae include a number of well-known and useful plants, including nettles in the genus ''Urtica'', ramie (''Boehmeri ...

, Arecaceae, Lauraceae and

Annonaceae The Annonaceae are a family of flowering plants consisting of trees, shrubs, or rarely lianas commonly known as the custard apple family or soursop family. With 108 accepted genera and about 2400 known species, it is the largest family in the Ma ...

berries, along with other fruits. It has also been known to feed on lizards,

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" ''Triadobatrachus'' is ...

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s and

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. ...

e. Fruits are plucked from vegetation in flight or gleaned with heavy hops. A juvenile was also observed eating

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 chiti ...

s that were flushed out by a swarm of army ants in Costa Rica.

Breeding

Breeding occurs between March and June in Costa Rica and between April and September in Panama. Like other cotingas, male bare-necked umbrellabirds perform leks to attract females.

Status

It is listed as

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

on the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biol ...

. Its global population is estimated to be less than 2,500 mature individuals and decreasing.

References

Cited text

Chaves-Campos, J., Arévalo, J., & Araya, M. (2003). Altitudinal movements and conservation of Bare-necked Umbrellabird Cephalopterus glabricollis of the Tilarán Mountains, Costa Rica. Bird Conservation International, 13(1), 45–58. doi:10.1017/S0959270903003046