Groove-billed Toucanet

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Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Piciformes
Family:	Ramphastidae
Genus:	Aulacorhynchus
Species:	A. sulcatus

Binomial name

Aulacorhynchus sulcatus
(Swainson, 1820)

The Groove-billed Toucanet (Aulacorhynchus sulcatus) is a species of bird in the Ramphastidae family. It is found in mountains of northern Colombia and northern Venezuela. Its natural habitat is subtropical and upper tropical humid forest and woodland, occasionally also occurring in gardens. It includes the Yellow-billed Toucanet (A. sulcatus calorhynchus), which is sometimes considered a separate species.

It has a total length ca. 35 cm (14 in). It is, as other members of the genus Aulacorhynchus, mainly green. The throat is white (or pale bluish in the subspecies A. s. erythrognathus) and the ocular skin is blue. The bill is black with maroon markings, but the maroon is replaced by yellow in A. s. calorhynchus. This distinctive subspecies, which is found in the western part of the species' range, is sometimes considered a separate species, the Yellow-billed Toucanet (Aulacorhynchus calorhynchus, Gould, 1874), but it is vocally similar to the other subspecies and hybrids are known from the region where it comes into contact with A. s. sulcatus.

It is generally fairly common in its range, and therefore considered Least Concern by BirdLife International. It occurs in several protected areas such as the Henri Pittier National Park in Venezuela.

[edit] References

BirdLife International 2004. Aulacorhynchus sulcatus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 27 July 2007.
Restall, R., Rodner, C., and Lentino, M. (2006). Birds of South America. Vol. 1. Helm, London. ISBN 0-7136-7242-0