Southern Emerald-Toucanet

About the Southern Emerald-Toucanet

The southern emerald toucanet (Aulacorhynchus albivitta) is a near-passerine bird in the toucan family Ramphastidae. It is found in montane regions of Colombia, Ecuador, western Venezuela, Peru and northern Bolivia. The southern emerald toucanet was formally described in 1840 as Pteroglossus albivitta by the French ornithologist Auguste Boissonneau based on a specimen collected in Bogotá, Colombia. The specific epithet combines Latin albus meaning "white" with vitta meaning "band" or "head-band". The southern emerald toucanet is now one of eight toucanets placed in the genus Aulacorhynchus that was introduced in 1835 by John Gould.

For many years what was then known as the emerald toucanet was considered to have 14 subspecies. In 2008 the International Ornithological Committee (IOC) divided the subspecies into five species based on differences in morphology and mitochondrial DNA sequences. The five species were the emerald toucanet (A. prasinus) with four subspecies, the blue-throated toucanet (A. caeruleogularis) with two subspecies, the white-throated toucanet (A. albivitta) with four subspecies, the black-throated toucanet (A. atrogularis) with three subspecies and... Wikipedia →