Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani)
The most noticeable feature of the Smooth-billed Ani is the raised hump on its bill.
Smooth-billed ani Crotophaga ani
Identification Tips:
Length: 12 inches
Entirely black plumage
Large, heavy bill with hump at base of culmen
Long tail
Sexes similar
Often found in small groups
Inhabits grassy, scrubby areas ...
Within the United States, the Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani) only occurs in Florida, but it is widespread in many other areas of the tropics.
Smooth-billed Ani, Crotophaga ani
Groove-billed Ani, Crotophaga sulcirostris
Cabo San Lucas Groove-billed Ani, Crotophaga sulcirostris pallidula - probably invalid; extinct (c.1940) ...
Smooth-billed Ani
Time was growing short but birds became few and far between. After their initial dawn chorus, birds in the Blue Mountains quiet down. One must be patient to pick out the good birds.
Similar Species: Smooth-billed Ani (generally found only in Florida in the U.S.).
If you are a real optimist and not satisfied with your good luck in finding an Ani then check the bill for the "bump" that would indicate a Smooth-billed Ani. I don't think there is a record of Smooth-billed Ani on the UTC, but you never know.
Within this territory a single large nest is built, within which the eggs are laid by several females, either altogether as a single large clutch as in the Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani), ...
Clamator glandarius (Great Spotted Cuckoo)
Coccyzus americanus (Yellow-billed Cuckoo)
Crotophaga ani (Smooth-billed Ani)
Cuculus canorus (Common Cuckoo)
Eudynamys scolopacea (Asian Koel)
Tauraco persa (Green Turaco) ...
This is the only family that occurs in the southeastern United States.
Species in this family:
Black-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus erythropthalmus)
Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani)
Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) ...
The other cuckoos in Florida are the less common Black-billed Cuckoo, a spring and fall migrant, the secretive Mangrove Cuckoo, a rare species and resident of south-central and south Florida mangrove habitats, the uncommon Smooth-billed Ani, ...
Walking a farm road in an area reserved for giant land tortoises we saw many tortoises one with a Cattle Egret on its back and Smooth-billed Ani.
Reports of an ani in Guysborough County in fall 1975 and of another at Debert, Colchester County, on 7-8 December 1980, did not include enough details for discrimination from the Smooth-billed Ani, Crotophaga ani, ...
 See also: Ani, Cuckoo, Cattle, Cattle egret, Swallow
  
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