Return of Bird of the Week: Barred Puffbird
Here’s a final Puffbird to wrap up this family of birds. It may seem like WC has been writing about Puffbirds for months, but in reality WC has photographed only a tiny fraction of the 36 members of this family. So many birds; so little time.
Barred Puffbird. Darién Province, Panama
The Barred Puffbird has a pretty restricted range, from eastern Panama to Ecuador. It’s apparently most common in Columbia, where WC has never been. And despite being present in a chunk of Ecuador, WC has never seen it there, despite four birding trips to that excellent country. It’s rare, as well as difficult to spot. WC saw his guide react to the very distinctive, wolf-whistle call, but despite serious efforts we couldn’t see the bird. That’s pretty common.
This species prefers the mid-story and lower canopy, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that WC’s photos are against a bright sky. You can see that general puffbird shape – big head, impressive rictal feathers, fluffy shape, and the short wings and long tail are classic.
Barred Puffbird. Darién Province, Panama
Like other puffbirds, the Barred Puffbird sits motionless for long periods of time, occasionally sallying out to snag insects. They’ve been spotted with a wide varierty of prey, but there’s no reports beyond that.
Exactly one nest has been found, a meter-long tunnel in a Ecuadoran road cut, with a small chamber at the end. That nest had two, nearly fledged chicks. And that’s all that is known about the species’ reproduction. It has two color morphs, the Ecuador birds being somewhat more rufous, but no known subspecies. It seems to be rare to uncommon throughout its range, except possibly in Columbia, where it is locally common (most sightings are from Columbia).
As is true for most of the Puffbird family, this species is poorly known. Because of its wide range, it isn’t believed to be threatened, and is classed as Least Concern. But so little is known that it’s mostly a guess.
For more bird photographs, please visit Frozen Feather Images.