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Barred Puffbird | Nystalus radiatus
Gebandeerde baardkoekoek | Buco barrado | Rapazinho-barrado
The Barred Puffbird is the only puffbird in the guide area that is entirely tawny-buff with fine black barring. It lives west of the Andes, in humid forest and semi-open country. Its slow, drawn-out whistles are often heard long before the motionless bird is found.
Voice
A slow, drawn-out two-part whistle, the second part lower, like wheeee-wheeuu, repeated after long pauses; also in the afternoon.
Recording: José María Loaiza B. — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
20–22 cm, with a large head, a heavy, hook-tipped greyish bill and a medium-length tail. The whole plumage is tawny-buff to ochre, darker and more rufous above, finely barred black throughout. A plain cinnamon band crosses the hindneck. The throat is paler, almost white. The iris is pale yellow. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Sooty-capped Puffbird Bucco noanamae has a black crown, a white supercilium and a black breast band. White-whiskered Puffbird Malacoptila panamensis is streaked brown rather than barred, with a white moustachial stripe. The female Fasciated Antshrike Cymbilaimus lineatus is also finely barred, but much smaller and slimmer, with a red iris.
Habitat
Edges of humid lowland and foothill forest, secondary forest, clearings with scattered trees, shade coffee and cacao, from the lowlands up to about 1000 m. It sits still for long periods on a lookout perch in the middle storey or canopy and sallies for large insects and small lizards. It nests in a cavity in an earth bank or a termite nest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia in the Pacific lowlands and foothills and in the northern lowlands, east into the Magdalena valley. In Ecuador in the western lowlands and foothills, south into the south-west. Absent from Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in eastern Panama.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Along forest edges and clearings with tall trees in western Ecuador and Colombia; follow the drawn-out whistles and search for a motionless bird on a bare branch.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species tolerates forest edges, secondary forest and semi-open country with trees, but disappears where forest is cleared completely.
Scientific name
Nystalus radiatus | (Sclater, 1854)
Sclater described the species in 1854 as Bucco radiatus; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Nystalus was introduced in 1863 by Cabanis & Heine. The genus name comes from Greek nustalos, 'drowsy'. The species name radiatus is Latin for 'rayed' or 'barred', after the barred plumage. The specimen the first description was based on came from Magdalena Valley, Colombia.