Crotophaga ani
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
The smooth-billed ani (Crotophaga ani) is a bird in the cuckoo family. It is a resident breeding species from southern Florida, the Caribbean, parts of Central America, south to western Ecuador, Brazil, northern Argentina and southern Chile. It was introduced to Galápagos around the 1960s and is potentially impacting native and endemic species across the archipelago.
The smooth-billed ani was described and illustrated in 1648 by the German naturalist Georg Marcgrave in his Historia Naturalis Brasiliae. He used the name "Ani" but did not explain the origin of the word. It probably comes from the word Anim in the Tupi language which means "social bird". In 1756 the Irish physician Patrick Browne used the name Crotophaga for the species in his The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica. Browne's name combines the Ancient Greek krotōn meaning "tick" with -phagos meaning "-eating". Browne wrote that the smooth-billed anis "live chiefly upon ticks and other small vermin; and may be frequently seen jumping about all cows and oxen in the fields". When the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the tenth edition in 1758 he included the smooth-billed ani... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fortaleza | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 2 | Natal | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 3 | Santa Cruz de la Sierra | 🇧🇴 Bolivia | |
| 4 | São Luís | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 5 | Recife | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 6 | Cali | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 7 | Barranquilla | 🇨🇴 Colombia | |
| 8 | Goiânia | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 9 | Belém | 🇧🇷 Brazil | |
| 10 | Havana | 🇨🇺 Cuba |
No species of the same family or order lives in Maracaibo, so these are its closest relatives here: other birds.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Smooth-billed Ani sighting in Maracaibo on a given day, based on 48 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 44th most-seen of the 89 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May–June and October
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Smooth-billed Ani in Maracaibo on a given day, against under 5% in August and November–January, the lowest months. Those are among Maracaibo's wettest months, with about 95 mm of rain a month against 5 mm in February.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Smooth-billed Ani sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
24th of 34
Of the 34 cities where we can rate Smooth-billed Ani sightings, Maracaibo ranks 24th at about 10%. The best odds are in Fortaleza (Brazil, about 50%), Natal (Brazil, about 50%) and Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Bolivia, about 40%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Smooth-billed Ani is recorded against all the birds logged in Maracaibo (48 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
