Ariel Toucan Ramphastos ariel
(aka Channel-billed Toucan Ramphastos vitellinus ariel)
Channel-billed Toucan, Caxiuanã, Pará, Brazil, November 2005 - click for larger image Brazil

The Ariel Toucan is distributed south of the Amazon and east of the rio Tapajós in Pará, Maranhão and Piauí with a disjunct population in eastern Brazil. See the distribution map at Birdlife International. It is found in primary forest of various types but rarely seen in secondary growth.

Channel-billed Toucan, Caxiuanã, Pará, Brazil, November 2005 - click for larger image The taxonomy of this species is quite complicated but the HBW and Birdlife International Checklist recognise it as a separate, monotypic species. That said, recent research (Weckstein, J. D. 2004. "Biogeography explains cophylogenetic patterns in toucan chewing lice". Systematic Biology 53: 154-164) has found that the Amazonian population is only distantly related to that of the Atlantic Rain Forest so maybe there is another sub-species about to be described.
Channel-billed Toucan, Caxiuanã, Pará, Brazil, November 2005 - click for larger image

Photos 1 and 3, taken at Caxiuanã, Pará, show the blue basal culmen spot which is one of the diagnostic features of ariel and often difficult to see. Photos 4 and 5 were taken in São Paulo state.

Ariel Toucan, Peruibe, SP, Brazil, October 2022 - click for larger image

Ariel Toucan, Itanhaem, SP, Brazil, October 2022 - click for larger image

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