Bare-throated Bellbird

Description:

***Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)*** The Bare-throated Bellbird (Procnias nudicollis) is a species of bird in the Cotingidae family. It is found in Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. It has one of the loudest calls of any bird - a sharp sound like that of a hammer striking an anvil or a bell, emitted by the male while it perches on a high branch in order to attract a mate. The sound is so loud, that it can be heard up to a mile away and can apparently cause damage to human hearing if heard from close range. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. It is threatened by habitat loss and by poaching for cage birds. It raises the attraction of collectors because of the adult males's showy coloration (shiny white with the skin of the throth bare and turquoise blue; the female, as well as both sexes juveniles, are mostly light or olive green with a black head). A fruit-eating species, it acts in the ecology of the Atlantic rainforest as a dispersor of seeds. Despite its vulnerable status, it can be found in an unusual urban setting, a juvenile male having recently (2007) been photographed foraging in one of the campuses of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro set in an artificial island in the vicinity of the heavily polluted Guanabara Bay; another specimen had already been spotted in 2005 at the Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo