Crotophaga ani
Silhouette: Andy Wilson · PhyloPic
In 3 days <5%
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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Smooth-billed Ani sighting in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, based on 44 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 219th most-seen of the 279 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to under 5%, if each day is a fresh chance.
September
In that month about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Smooth-billed Ani in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge on a given day, against under 5% in October to August, the lowest months. That is one of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge's wettest months, with about 210 mm of rain against 50 mm in March.
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.
49th of 50
Of the 50 parks where we can rate Smooth-billed Ani sightings, Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge ranks 49th at under 5%. The best odds are in Parque Estadual Encontro das Águas (Brazil, about 70%), Galápagos Islands (Ecuador, about 50%) and Caroni Swamp (Trinidad and Tobago, about 40%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Smooth-billed Ani is recorded against all the birds logged in Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (44 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), 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.
