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Crotophaga ani
Passerine from the cuckoo family.The Smooth-billed Ani is about 33 cm (13 in) long and weighs 95 g (3.4 oz). The adult is mainly flat black, with a long tail, deep ridged black bill and a brown iris. The flight is weak and wobbly, but the bird runs well and usually feeds on the ground. Gregarious. The Smooth-billed Ani feeds on termites, large insects and even lizards and frogs. They will occasionally remove ticks and other parasites from grazing animals.
Virgin Islands, in the trees and bushes. It is a resident breeding species from southern Florida, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, parts of Central America, south to western Ecuador, Brazil, and northern Argentina.
The natives of the islands have the superstition that these birds show up when someone in your family is about to die. I must say this was luckily not the case for me :-)
Spotted on Nov 7, 2006
Submitted on Jun 22, 2011
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