Smooth-billed Ani

Overview

Smooth-billed Ani: Medium-sized, shaggy bird, black overall with bronze overtones, thick bill and long tail, often bobbed, wagged, and held beneath body. Feathers on upper breast and back are lined with iridescent silver and are scaled. Flight is slow and weak,often low to the ground.

Range and Habitat

Smooth-billed Ani: Resident in southern Florida; also found in American tropics. Frequents open agricultural country, often near cattle or other livestock; also found in scrub and thickets.

INTERESTING FACTS

It is an old Surinamese belief that the disagreeable meat of the ani is a good cure for asthmatic sufferings. The patient was not supposed to know what he was eating, otherwise the medicine would not be effective.
The nest of the Smooth-billed Ani is built communally by several pairs. Eggs are laid by several females, deposited in layers separated by leaves or grass. Up to 30 eggs have been found in one nest. Those at the bottom do not hatch. The females share incubation, often two or more brooding simultaneously.
A group of anis are collectively known as a "cooch", "orphanage", and "silliness" of anis.

The Smooth-billed Ani is a large bird, and a member of the cuckoo family. This species is a permanent resident in most of its warm habitat. It prefers to breed in southern Florida, the West Indies, Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, southern and western Ecuador, Brazil, northern Argentina and the Bahamas. The Smooth-billed Ani’s habitat includes open or semi-open country and areas of cultivated land. Nests are deep cups built in high trees. Typical diets consist of termites, insects, lizards, frogs and ticks. The conservation status of the Smooth-billed Ani is currently listed as Least Concern.