Smooth-billed Ani

 

The Smooth-billed Ani is a glossy black cuckoo with an oversized bill. Almost always seen in groups, these birds traipse through tangled, shrubby habitats in the tropics of South America and the Caribbean. They eat insects and lizards as well as fruit, especially during the dry season. Groups do almost everything together, with females laying all their eggs in a single communal nest tended by all group members.

In their Caribbean and Central/South American range, Smooth-billed Anis are relatively common in wet, shrubby or thorny habitat. Look for them early in the morning, when they are most conspicuous and vocal.

Smooth-billed Anis look rather like large songbirds, but they are in a different taxonomic order. They are related to cuckoos and roadrunners. One distinguishing feature of this group is their feet, which are "zygodactyl"—with two toes pointing forward and two pointing backward.

Smooth-billed Anis often forage in vine tangles, thorn trees, bamboo, and reeds, using their outsized upper mandible to knock leaves out of the way as they keep their eyes trained on their prey. Cornell All About Birds