Scarlet-headed Blackbird - Amblyramphus holosericeus

Scarlet-headed Blackbird Amblyramphus holosericeus

Brazilian name:cardeal-do-banhado

Pantanal, Mato Grosso, Brazil
December 2006

These photos shows the long, slender and sharply pointed bill. This is used to hammer like a woodpecker on soft vegetable matter. It then "gapes" or opens its mandibles in the hole just made in order to extract any food that it may find.

It is a wetland species inhabiting reed beds in marshes. When seen they are most often perched on a stem as in these photos

There is an illustration in Ridgely & Tudor, Volume 1, Plate 21

There are recordings and a distribution map on xeno-canto.

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