Bare-throated Bellbird

English             -             Bare-throated Bellbird 

Portuguese     -             Araponga

Latin                -              Procnias nudicollis

The Bare-throated Bellbird  is a species from the Cotingidae family of birds and is the National bird of Paraguay.

The aptly named Bare-throated Bellbird is one of the loudest birds in the world. Its call is a loud and far-reaching series of metallic, two-tone koink and prroink notes emitted from high in the forest canopy. This remarkable call is the result of extreme sexual selection, as is the male’s arresting appearance of all-white plumage with turquoise, black, bristly, bare skin around the eyes, throat and lower neck. The drabber and smaller female is olive brown above, with a blackish crown, blackish sides of the head, a white-streaked throat, and pale yellowish underparts with olive streaking. Males can get to 29 cm in length and weigh up to 225 g. The Female can get to 27 cm and weigh up to 158 g.

The Bare-throated Bellbird is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of eastern Brazil, south to northeastern Argentina and eastern Paraguay. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Bare-throated Bellbirds are sexually active at 2 years of age. When attracting a mate, the male will sing his heart out and try to attract serval females. He chooses a certain tree branches, which he may use for many years. Mating normally happens towards the end of the year. The nest is like a shallow bowl and is solely built by the female. All parental care is the responsibility of the female. She lays 2 eggs which are oval and reddish brown, with dark spots at the rounder end in which she will incubate for around 23 days. The nestlings will fledge after 27 days.

Bare-throated Bellbirds feed on various fruits and plays an important part in dispersing the seeds of forest trees as they disperse the seeds of the fruit they eat through there droppings. They have been recorded to eat 16 different fruit species.

The bare-throated bellbird is classified as “a Vulnerable species” and  is considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild.  

The bare-throated Bellbird global population is estimated to number no more than 10,000 in total but probably the numbers are fewer, and it’s thought to be in steep decline. This has most likely been caused by habitat loss and trapping for the cage-bird trade. Centuries of logging and clearing for agriculture, plantations and mining has destroyed vast tracts of the Atlantic forest, and today it covers less than 10 percent of its original extent. Current threats to this habitat include urbanisation, industrialisation, agricultural expansion, colonisation and associated road-building. The narrow strip of coastal forest in north-eastern Brazil has all but gone – only three percent remains and the bare-throated Bellbird is thought to be extinct in that region. Trapping pressure for the cage-bird trade is particularly heavy in southern Bahia, São Paulo and Santa Catarina in Brazil and is suspected to have had drastic effects on the Bare-throated Bellbird population there. Trapping is also a growing threat in Paraguay and caged Bare-throated Bellbirds can be readily seen in markets in the Paraguayan capital, Asunción.

Both photos of the Bare-throated Bellbird were taken at Parque das Aves - Foz do Iguacu - Parana

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