All species › Jacamars and puffbirds › Puffbirds › Black Nunbird
Black Nunbird | Monasa atra
Zwarte trappist | Monja negra | Chora-chuva-de-asa-branca
The Black Nunbird is a dark nunbird with a red bill and white shoulders from north-eastern South America. In the guide area it is barely known: there are only a few records from the far east of Colombia. Elsewhere it lives in small groups in rainforest north of the Amazon.
Voice
Loud, rolling and cackling choruses by several birds at once, often long sustained; also single whistled calls.
Recording: JAYRSON ARAUJO DE OLIVEIRA — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
26–29 cm, with a long tail and a heavy, slightly decurved, coral-red bill. The plumage is slate-grey to blackish, darkest on the head and forehead. The lesser wing coverts carry a white patch, visible as a white shoulder. The sexes are alike; juveniles are browner, with a duller bill.
Confusion species
Yellow-billed Nunbird Monasa flavirostris also has white shoulders, but a yellow bill, and lives in western Amazonia. Black-fronted Nunbird Monasa nigrifrons has a red bill but lacks the white shoulder. White-fronted Nunbird Monasa morphoeus has white around the base of the bill and no white shoulder.
Habitat
Humid terra firme lowland forest, old secondary forest and forest edges, in the lowlands. It sits quietly at mid-height in pairs or small groups and takes large insects, spiders and small lizards, often near mixed flocks. The nest is at the end of a tunnel in the ground.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Colombia only a few records from the far east, near the borders with Venezuela and Brazil; whether the species is resident there is uncertain. Absent from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in southern and eastern Venezuela, the Guianas and northern Brazil north of the Amazon.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Within the guide area the species can at most be expected in the far east of Colombia, in the departments of Guainía and Vaupés. Document any record there with a photo or sound recording.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The species has a large range in largely intact rainforest.
Scientific name
Monasa atra | (Boddaert, 1783)
Boddaert described the species in 1783 as Cuculus ater; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Monasa was introduced in 1816 by Vieillot. The genus name comes from Greek monas, 'solitary'. The species name comes from Latin ater, 'black'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cayenne, French Guiana.