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Smooth-billed ani
Crotophaga ani
18.4939, -64.4023
Field Notes
Description:
Passerine from the cuckoo family.The Smooth-billed Ani is about 33 cm (13 in) long and weighs 95 g (3.4 oz). The adult is mainly flat black, with a long tail, deep ridged black bill and a brown iris. The flight is weak and wobbly, but the bird runs well and usually feeds on the ground. Gregarious.
The Smooth-billed Ani feeds on termites, large insects and even lizards and frogs. They will occasionally remove ticks and other parasites from grazing animals.
Habitat:
Virgin Islands, in the trees and bushes.
It is a resident breeding species from southern Florida, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, parts of Central America, south to western Ecuador, Brazil, and northern Argentina.
Notes:
The natives of the islands have the superstition that these birds show up when someone in your family is about to die. I must say this was luckily not the case for me :-)
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