The many-banded aracari or many-banded araçari (''Pteroglossus pluricinctus'') is a

near-passerine Near passerines and higher land-bird assemblage are terms of traditional, pre-cladistic taxonomy that have often been given to tree-dwelling birds or those most often believed to be related to the true passerines (order Passeriformes) owing to mor ...

bird in the toucan family

Ramphastidae Toucans (, ) are members of the Neotropical near passerine bird family Ramphastidae. The Ramphastidae are most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five g ...

. It is found in Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.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 July 2022. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved July 24, 2022

Taxonomy and systematics

The many-banded aracari 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 "unispe ...

Description

The many-banded aracari is long including the bill. It weighs . Males' and females' bills are alike in color; the female's is shorter. The bill has an orange-yellow line at its base. Its

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. T ...

is orange-yellow with a wide black stripe on the culmen and a black base. Its

mandible In anatomy, the mandible, lower jaw or jawbone is the largest, strongest and lowest bone in the human facial skeleton. It forms the lower jaw and holds the lower teeth in place. The mandible sits beneath the maxilla. It is the only movable bone ...

is black. Adult males have a mostly black head, throat, and neck but for bare blue-green to green skin around the eye and a chestnut patch behind it. Their back is dark green and their rump is red. Their underparts are yellow with two bands, the upper one black and the lower one black and red. Their thighs are a mix of chestnut, green, and yellow. Adult females have little or no chestnut behind the eye and their black breast band is usually wider than the male's. Immatures are overall duller than adults, especially the yellow. Their bill is gray, brown, horn, and black without the yellow basal line. Their thighs are green.Short, L.L. (2020). Many-banded Aracari (''Pteroglossus pluricinctus''), 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.mabara1.01 retrieved December 23, 2022

Distribution and habitat

The many-banded aracari is found from northeastern Colombia and northwestern and southeastern Venezuela south through eastern Ecuador to northeastern Peru and east into northwestern Brazil north of the Amazon River and east to Roraima state. It primarily inhabits '' terra firme'' forest and to a lesser degree '' várzea '' and

gallery forest A gallery forest is one formed as a corridor along rivers or wetlands, projecting into landscapes that are otherwise only sparsely treed such as savannas, grasslands, or deserts. The gallery forest maintains a more temperate microclimate above th ...

s. It mostly ranges up to of elevation but occurs as high as .

Behavior

Movement

The many-banded aracari is believed to be a year-round resident throughout its range.

Feeding

The many-banded aracari forages singly, in pairs, or in small groups. It is primarily

frugivorous A frugivore is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, shoots, nuts and seeds. Approximately 20% of mammalian herbivores eat fruit. Frugivores are highly dependent on the abundance an ...

and also includes insects, small birds and bird eggs, and lizards in its diet. It plays a role in seed dispersal of fruits with a dispersion range of hundreds of meters. It is likely to regurgitate seeds as opposed to excreting them.

Breeding

The many-banded aracari's breeding season is thought to be between November and March in Colombia and Ecuador and from March to October in the rest of its range. Nothing else is known about its breeding biology.

Vocalization

The many-banded aracari's calls are variously described as "seeent", "seeet", "see-yeet", "kyseek", and "kyeek".

Status

The IUCN has assessed the many-banded aracari as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range but its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. It is described as "fairly common" from Colombia to Peru but is not well known elsewhere. It occurs in several protected areas. " Lack of information on its biology and population ecology would be serious handicaps if hespecies comes to need any protective action."

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q735952 many-banded aracari Birds of the Amazon Basin Birds of the Colombian Amazon Birds of the Ecuadorian Amazon Birds of the Venezuelan Amazon many-banded aracari Taxonomy articles created by Polbot