{"id":258661,"date":"2026-03-08T05:58:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T10:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fauna\/smooth-billed-ani\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T17:20:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T22:20:34","slug":"smooth-billed-ani","status":"publish","type":"fauna","link":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/faune-2\/smooth-billed-ani\/","title":{"rendered":"Smooth-billed Ani"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crotophaga ani<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":258620,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":""},"collection":[],"country":[11],"fauna-group":[27563],"fauna-type":[27217],"class_list":["post-258661","fauna","type-fauna","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","country-colombia","fauna-group-cuckoos","fauna-type-birds"],"acf":{"scientific_name":"Crotophaga ani","animal_description":"The Smooth-billed Ani is a distinctive, charcoal-black member of the cuckoo family, easily recognized by its oversized, deeply ridged, and highly arched bill that gives it a unique, prehistoric silhouette. Primarily found in the tropical Americas and the Caribbean, this social bird is most famous for its fascinating communal nesting habits, where multiple breeding pairs contribute eggs to a single large nest and cooperatively raise the communal brood. While their flight can appear somewhat floppy and uncoordinated, they are highly effective terrestrial foragers, often seen in loose, noisy groups following livestock through pastures to snatch up insects stirred up by the animals. With its long, loosely attached tail and piercing, liquid whistles, the Smooth-billed Ani is a remarkable example of avian social complexity and specialized physical evolution.","animal_habitat":"This species maintains a broad geographical range that extends from southern Florida and the Caribbean islands through Central America and across much of South America, reaching as far south as northern Argentina. It is notably widespread east of the Andes, occupying diverse tropical and subtropical regions throughout the Neotropics.\n\nIt primarily inhabits open and semi-open environments, showing a strong preference for humid lowlands, cattle pastures, and agricultural fields. These birds are frequently found in scrubby thickets, mangrove edges, and second-growth forests where they can forage in tall grass or brush. They generally avoid dense, primary rainforests, instead favoring disturbed areas or clearings near water sources where human activity has created suitable open landscapes.","animal_behavior_and_reproduction":"These birds are highly social, living in stable groups that forage, roost, and defend territories together. Their reproductive strategy is defined by communal nesting, where multiple breeding pairs contribute eggs to a single, large stick nest. While pairs within the group are generally monogamous, the entire community participates in a cooperative breeding system. This includes shared incubation duties and collective efforts to feed and protect the chicks, fostering a high degree of social interdependence.\n\nA fascinating and competitive element of their breeding behavior involves \"egg tossing,\" where females may eject eggs laid by others in the communal nest before they begin laying their own. This behavior typically continues until the last female starts her clutch, ensuring her eggs have the best chance of survival. Once the full communal clutch is established, the competition ends, and the group works harmoniously to raise the brood. This combination of initial reproductive competition followed by intense cooperation is a rare and complex strategy among avian species.","diet":"The Smooth-billed Ani is a versatile generalist omnivore whose diet primarily consists of large insects such as grasshoppers, beetles, caterpillars, and termites, though it also consumes spiders, small vertebrates like lizards and frogs, and a variety of fruits and seeds. A particularly fascinating aspect of their feeding behavior is their commensal relationship with grazing livestock; these birds frequently follow cattle and horses through pastures to snatch up insects flushed out of the vegetation by the moving animals. While they are famously known for perching on the backs of cattle to pick off ticks and other parasites, they are also highly opportunistic, sometimes raiding the nests of other birds for eggs or nestlings. Foraging usually takes place in noisy, social groups, where the birds work cooperatively to flush out prey from tall grasses, demonstrating a highly communal approach to securing their daily nutrition.","colors":"The Smooth-billed Ani is entirely black with a subtle iridescent bronze or violet sheen across its plumage. Its most distinctive feature is a massive, high-arched black bill with a smooth ridge, while the feathers on its head, neck, and breast display a scaly or scalloped pattern due to pale margins. This uniform dark coloration provides effective camouflage, allowing the bird to blend into the deep shadows of dense tropical vegetation.","fun_facts":"Renowned for their \"communal nurseries,\" multiple females in a group will lay their eggs in a single, massive nest that can hold over 30 eggs at once. These social birds are frequently seen hitching rides on the backs of livestock to feast on ticks and insects, earning them the nickname \"Tick-bird.\" Despite their imposing, blade-like bills, they are surprisingly clumsy fliers that prefer to hop through thickets rather than take to the air. Perhaps most bizarrely, they emit a distinctively pungent odor often compared to the smell of a wet dog, which is thought to help maintain group cohesion within dense vegetation.","conservation_status_&_efforts":"The Smooth-billed Ani is currently classified as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List due to its extensive range across the Caribbean and South America. While the global population is considered stable, significant localized declines have occurred, particularly in Florida, where the species has faced a dramatic range contraction. Primary threats include habitat loss driven by intensive agriculture and urban development, which eliminates the scrubby, semi-open environments the birds require. Additionally, the heavy use of pesticides in farming areas can reduce their primary food source of insects and lizards.\n\nBecause the species remains widespread and common in the Neotropics, there are few conservation programs specifically dedicated to its protection. Instead, it benefits from general habitat preservation and broader avian management strategies within protected areas. In regions where populations are dwindling, such as the northern edge of its range, conservation efforts focus on monitoring population trends and maintaining the brushy, edge-habitat corridors that facilitate their communal nesting and foraging behaviors.","endemic":false,"conservation_status":"Least Concern","ebird_link":{"url":"https:\/\/ebird.org\/species\/smbani","title":"View on Ebird","target":"_blank"},"animal_related_page":{"url":"https:\/\/animalia.bio\/smooth-billed-ani","title":"View on Animalia","target":"_blank"},"fauna_family":"Cuculidae","fauna_known_nicknames":"Black Witch, Savanna Blackbird, Tick Bird","fauna_average_length":"30\u201336 cm \/ 12\u201314 in","fauna_average_weight":"71\u2013133 g \/ 2.5\u20134.7 oz","fauna_wingspan":"43\u201346 cm \/ 17\u201318 in","fauna_key_physical_feature":"Deep, arched, laterally compressed bill with a smooth ridge and long, floppy tail","fauna_primary_diet":"Omnivore (Primarily insects, small vertebrates, and fruit)","fauna_geographical_range":"Southern Florida, West Indies, and South America south to northern Argentina","fauna_preferred_habitat":"Open and semi-open country, pastures, scrublands, and forest edges","fauna_social_structure":"Highly Social, Communal Breeders","fauna_breeding_site":"Large communal cup nests in trees or thorny bushes","fauna_conservation_status":"Least Concern (LC)","fauna_population_trend":"Decreasing","fauna_spanish_name":"Garrapatero piquiliso","fauna_french_name":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna\/258661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/fauna"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=258661"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=258661"},{"taxonomy":"fauna-group","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna-group?post=258661"},{"taxonomy":"fauna-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/remote-expeditions.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/fauna-type?post=258661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}