Spotted Puffbird (Bucco tamatia)

Spotted Puffbird Nystactes tamatia)
(aka Bucco tamatia - see HBW, Volume 7, Page 126)

Roraima, Brazil
July 2001

The Spotted Puffbird with its black bill, red iris, orange forehead, throat and upper chest, white malar stripe and black patch on the side of its neck is unlikely to be confused.

It is found in northern South America into west and central Amazonia. Its preferred habitat seems to be gallery forest, the edges of várzea forest and Mauritia palm groves which is where these birds were found.

Like most puffbirds, they can be hard to spot because they spend a lot of time motionless. However, once spotted they can be very confiding and allow you to get quite close.

These birds were feeding on a termite nest and may have been excavating a nest of their own. If so, the termites would restore the walls opened up by the puffbirds but leave the nest chamber made by them.

There are illustrations in HBW, Volume 7, Pages 102 and 124; Ridgely & Greenfield, Plate 51; Hilty & Brown, Plate 19; and Sick, Plate 23.

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