Return of Bird of the Week: White-eared Puffbird

Remember WC cautioned readers that some of the Puffbird photos were pretty sketchy. Here’s another.

White-eared Puffbird, Pantanal, Brazil

The White-eared Puffbird is found from eastern Peru and central Brazil south to Paraguay and northeastern Argentina. It prefers the middle levels of jungle forest and the gallery forests of the lowlands. Like other Puffbirds, it still-hunts from mid-level perches in trees and shrubs, and will take a wide range of prey, from insects to reptiles to crabs.

White-eared Puffbirds have one of the most southerly distributions of any species of puffbird; there is some evidence that the southernmost populations of White-eared Puffbird are migratory, moving north in the austral winter. White-eared Puffbirds have also been observed to lower their body temperatures and enter into torpor during cool weather.

White-eared Puffbird, Pantanal. Brazil

It’s one of the easiest Puffbirds to identify in the field, with that bright orange bill and the distinctive white patch behind the ear that gives the species its common name.

Like many other Puffbird species, the White-eared Puffbird digs a nest-hole in the ground or into a bank, occasionally in a road cutting or a railroad embankment. Based on a very small sample size, the female lays a clutch of 2–4 eggs. Ornithology has no information on incubation or fledging periods. In fact, most of what science knows about this species is set out in this blog post.

There are two subspecies; these photos are both of Nystalus chacuru uncirostris.

This species has been observed hunting in coffee plantations, from telephone wires and at forest edges. That suggests the species may tolerate human disturbance better than some of its cousins. That inference, together with its moderately extensive range, makes it a species of Least Concern. But, again, given how little is known, that’s at best an educated guess.

For more bird photographs, please visit Frozen Feather Images.

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