All species › Jacamars and puffbirds
Jacamars and puffbirds | Galbuliformes
Glansvogels en baardkoekoeken | Jacamares y bucos
A small order of insect-eaters from the tropical forests of Central and South America, long placed with the related woodpeckers and allies, but now treated as an order of its own. As in the woodpeckers and allies, the foot is zygodactyl, with two toes directed forwards and two backwards, and nesting takes place in a cavity without any nest material, with white, unmarked eggs. The order consists of two families: the jacamars, slender and metallic, with a long, pointed bill used to catch flying insects in the air, and the puffbirds, compact and brown or black and white, with a heavy head and a shorter, often hooked bill, which sit still for long periods and take prey with a short sally. In the region only the jacamar family is represented, with a single species, the Rufous-tailed Jacamar, on Trinidad and Tobago, the islands that adjoin the South American mainland. On the other Caribbean islands the order is absent.
Families in this order
- Jacamars | Galbulidae1 speciesJacamars are a family of tropical Central and South America and together with the puffbirds make up the order Galbuliformes. One species occurs in the region, the Rufous-tailed Jacamar, on Trinidad and Tobago, along forest edges, trails and shaded cocoa plantations. It is a slender bird with a long, straight, needle-like bill, a long, narrow tail and plumage that is metallic green on head, back and breast; in this species the belly and outer tail feathers are rufous, and the male has a white throat, the female a buff one. The small foot is zygodactyl. A jacamar sits upright on an open branch and flies out after butterflies, dragonflies and other insects, which it beats against the branch on its return until the wings break off. The voice consists of high, sharp calls and accelerating, rising trills. The nest is a tunnel dug by the birds in an earth bank or in a termite nest, unlined, with a few white eggs.