The buff-bellied puffbird (''Notharchus swainsoni'') 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 lightweigh ...

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

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, and

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

Taxonomy and systematics

During the second half of the twentieth century, the buff-bellied puffbird and what are now the white-necked puffbird (''N. hyperrhynchus'') and Guianan puffbird (''N. macrorhynchus'') were treated as conspecific. It is now treated as its own

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 "unispec ...

species.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 August 24, 2021Rasmussen, P. C., N. Collar, and G. M. Kirwan (2020). Buff-bellied Puffbird (''Notharchus swainsoni'), 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.bubpuf1.01 retrieved October 30, 2021

Description

The buff-bellied puffbird is about long and weighs . The crown and upperparts are black with a green gloss and buffy edges to the feathers. It has a narrow white forehead, throat, and upper breast. The sides of the face and a thin band around the nape are grayish white. A wide black band separates the upper breast from the buffy to pale rufous belly. The flanks are gray. Its eye color can be straw, brown, or red.

Distribution and habitat

The buff-bellied puffbird is found in eastern Paraguay, far northeastern Argentina's Misiones Province, and in southeastern Brazil from southern

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...

and Espírito Santo south to Santa Catarina. It is resident in Argentina but possibly moves from other parts of its range into

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

state in the austral summer. It inhabits lowland humid

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

and

secondary forest A secondary forest (or second-growth forest) is a forest or woodland area which has re-grown after a timber harvest or clearing for agriculture, until a long enough period has passed so that the effects of the disturbance are no longer evident. ...

Behavior

Feeding

The buff-bellied puffbird hunts by sallies from a high bare perch to capture insects and sometimes small vertebrates; it also eats some fruits. It investigates army ant swarms.

Breeding

The buff-bellied puffbird breeds in September and October in the southern part of its range; the season elsewhere is not known. It excavates a nest cavity in an arboreal

termitarium Termites are small insects that live in colonies and have distinct castes (eusocial) and feed on wood or other dead plant matter. Termites comprise the infraorder Isoptera, or alternatively the epifamily Termitoidae, within the order Blattod ...

, and all other known breeding phenology at least for the Paraguayan subspecies is limited to one research paperhttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03544372.

Vocalization

The buff-bellied puffbird's song is a "descending sequence of whistles, varying in rhythm, 'ui-ui---dibule-dibule...'."

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the buff-bellied puffbird as being of Least Concern. It has a reasonably large range, and though its population has not been quantified it is believed to be stable. It has apparently expanded its range in Brazil since about 2000 and occurs in several protected areas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1273277 buff-bellied puffbird Birds of the Atlantic Forest buff-bellied puffbird buff-bellied puffbird Taxonomy articles created by Polbotbr>