The plantcutters are a group of

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 t ...

birds in 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 tip ...

family, Cotingidae. They were previously in their own family, Phytotomidae. The three plantcutters are all placed in the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

''Phytotoma''. These are robust birds of open woodland, scrub and farmland in southern and western

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. They resemble

finch The true finches are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Fringillidae. Finches have stout conical bills adapted for eating seeds and nuts and often have colourful plumage. They occupy a great range of habitats where they are usua ...

es, and are among the few primarily

folivorous In zoology, a folivore is a herbivore that specializes in eating leaves. Mature leaves contain a high proportion of hard-to-digest cellulose, less energy than other types of foods, and often toxic compounds.Jones, S., Martin, R., & Pilbeam, D. (1 ...

birds, though they also take some fruits, berries and flowers. The

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

is a reference to their stubby bills with fine serrations along the cutting edge – an adaptation for cutting plant material. They are

sexually dichromatic Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most anim ...

, with males having black wings with white patches, and at least partially rufous underparts. The plumage of the females is greyish-white or brownish-white with dense dark streaking throughout. These pair-living birds lay 2 - 4 brown-spotted green

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s in a tree nest. Only the female incubates, but both sexes participate in the nest-building and feeding of the chicks. The chicks are fed almost exclusively with insects.

Species

References

* Fitzpatrick, J. W. (2004). Plantcutters (Phytotoma). pp. 73–74 in: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., & Christie, D. A. eds. (2004). ''Handbook of the Birds of the World.'' Vol. 9. Cotingas to Wagtails. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. Cotingidae {{Cotingidae-stub