Description

Bill arched and laterally compressed, with upper mandible grooved. Eye dark. Entirely dull black, but somewhat glossier than the Smooth-billed Ani.

Habitat

Common on open fields and pastures. This species occurs sympatrically with the Smooth-billed in some areas, but the two never seem to actually associate in the same flock.

Habits and Behavior

Similar to the Smooth-billed Ani. Like that species, often forages around cattle, feeding on insects disturbed by the animals. Has a variety of guttural clucking calls (some rather similar to certain vocalizations of the Smooth-bill), and a distinctive shard dry kwik or hwilk, usually given in a series and often accelerated into an almost flicker-like wicka-wicka-wicka