Neotropical bellbird
Genus of birds
Neotropical bellbird (or simply bellbird) is the common name given to passerine birds of the genus Procnias, found in the Neotropics. They are members of the cotinga family. They are all restricted to tropical or subtropical humid forested regions, often in low mountains or foothills. As indicated by their common name, they all have extremely loud calls that are reminiscent of a metal bell being rung.
Three of the four species are restricted to South America, while the last, the three-wattled bellbird, is restricted to southern Central America.
They are strongly sexually dimorphic. Males have an at least partially white plumage, and facial wattles or bare facial skin. Females lack the wattles/bare facial skin, and are overall olive with yellowish streaks below.
01Taxonomy
The genus Procnias was introduced in 1811 by the German zoologist Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger. The name comes from Greek mythology, Procne was an Athenian princess who was metamorphosed into a swallow. The type species was designated as the bearded bellbird by George Gray in 1840.
The genus contains four species.
| Common name | Scientific name and subspecies | Range | Size and ecology | IUCN status and estimated population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Three-wattled bellbird | Procnias tricarunculatus (Verreaux & Verreaux, 1853) |
Costa Rica, to eastern Honduras, Nicaragua and western Panama |
Size: Habitat: Diet: |
VU |
| White bellbird | Procnias albus (Hermann, 1783) |
Guianas, Venezuela and Brazil (Pará) |
Size: Habitat: Diet: |
LC |
| Bearded bellbird | Procnias averano (Hermann, 1783) Two subspecies
|
Venezuela and adjacent parts of Colombia and Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago and northeastern Brazil |
Size: Habitat: Diet: |
LC |
| Bare-throated bellbird | Procnias nudicollis (Vieillot, 1817) |
Atlantic forest and adjacent moist areas |
Size: Habitat: Diet: |
NT |
02Cultural impact
In Brazil, the Neotropical bellbird is known as "araponga". After 1990, it became a slang for "spy" after the release of the Globo soap opera Araponga, as the character interpreted by Tarcísio Meira was codenamed after the bird.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Neotropical bellbird”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Flickr - Rainbirder - Bearded Bellbird (Procnias averano) male calling.jpg by Steve Garvie from Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, CC BY-SA 2.0
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