Black-billed Mountain-Toucan

About the Black-billed Mountain-Toucan

The black-billed mountain toucan (Andigena nigrirostris) is a species of bird in the toucan family Ramphastidae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. The black-billed mountain toucan was originally described in genus Pteroglossus. Three subspecies are recognized, the nominate A. n. nigrirostris (Waterhouse, 1839), A. n. occidentalis (Chapman, 1915), and A. n. spilorhynchus (Gould, 1858).

A. n. spilorhynchus was originally described as the species Andigena spilorhynchus. The three subspecies of black-billed mountain toucan have almost the same plumage. They have a black cap and nape and bronzy upperparts with a pale yellow rump. Their tail is dark slate with chestnut tips on the central two or three pairs of feathers. Their face and throat are white becoming pale blue on the breast; their thighs are chestnut and their undertail coverts are red. Bare skin surrounds their eye; it is pale blue before it and yellow or orange behind. Subspecies A. n. occidentalis' plumage differs from that of the other two only by having darker chestnut thighs.

Within each subspecies both sexes have the same bill pattern but the female's bill... Wikipedia →