Groove-billed and Smooth-billed Anis

One of the many things I like about Belize is the wonderful bird life. There is tremendous species diversity, and there are also just a lot of birds, everywhere. There are pelicans, frigate birds, terns and ospreys along the beach; spoonbills, egrets, and night herons in the lagoon; and orioles, parrots, hawks and hummingbirds in the forested bits. However, there is one particular species that might not be the flashiest on the island but has been of particular interest to me since we moved here:  the smooth-billed Ani.

The predominant Ani species is the groove-billed, and it can be found from southern Texas all the way to northern South America. I have seen many of them during our trips to the mainland. The bird is slightly smaller than a great-tailed grackle, has black plumage, a long tail, dark eyes, and a large bill with several prominent grooves.

Groove-billed Ani, image courtesy of allaboutbirds.com

A picture I took of a groove-billed Ani yesterday

The smooth-billed Ani is found from the southern tip of Florida, throughout the eastern Caribbean, and in northern South America. It is larger than the groove-billed, has a larger, smooth bill with a prominent bulge on top, and has completely different vocalizations.

Smooth-billed Ani, courtesy of allaboutbirds.com

A picture I took yesterday of a smooth-billed Ani, coincidentally in the same exact pose as the picture above

The really interesting thing about these two species of Ani is they overlap in only a handful of places in Central America, and Ambergris Caye is one of them.

Groove-billed Ani distribution map

Smooth-billed Ani distribution map. The little green blob at the southern border of Mexico on the Yucatan peninsula is Ambergris Caye.

Several weeks ago I was riding down our street and thought I saw a smooth-billed Ani flying parallel to the road, above the Mansions wall, but when I slowed down to take a closer look, it was gone. Absolutely execrable weather ensued, the holidays happened, my parents came to visit, etc.

Yesterday, I finally took the time to ride my bike inside the Mansions to look for the bird. The Mansions was intended to be a largeish (for San Pedro) gated community of luxury homes. The land was cleared, roads were built, utilities were installed, two homes were built...and then the global economy collapsed. No additional homes have been built, and the cleared land has started to return to habitat that just happens to be perfect for Anis, Grackles, flycatchers, and other birds.

When I came inside the gate, several black birds with long tails flew up from the ground to roost in nearby trees. Most of them were Grackles, but a handful were Anis. They looked like groove-billed Anis, so I observed through my binoculars and took a few photos. Scanning for more birds, I saw what looked like two large Anis that flew up into a tree. They let me get quite close, and I could see they were in fact smooth-billed Anis. Both species were IN THE SAME FIELD! This was really exciting for me, to see both species within a few yards of each other in one of the few places in Central America where they overlap.