Black-billed mountain toucan
The black-billed mountain toucan is a species of bird in the toucan family Ramphastidae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.
Taxonomy and systematics
The black-billed mountain toucan was originally described in genus Pteroglossus. Three subspecies are recognized, the nominate A. n. nigrirostris, A. n. occidentalis, and A. n. spilorhynchus.A. n. spilorhynchus was originally described as the species Andigena spilorhynchus.
Description
The three subspecies of black-billed mountain toucan have almost the same plumage. They have a black cap and nape and bronzy upperparts with a pale yellow rump. Their tail is dark slate with chestnut tips on the central two or three pairs of feathers. Their face and throat are white becoming pale blue on the breast; their thighs are chestnut and their undertail coverts are red. Bare skin surrounds their eye; it is pale blue before it and yellow or orange behind. Subspecies A. n. occidentalis plumage differs from that of the other two only by having darker chestnut thighs.Within each subspecies both sexes have the same bill pattern but the female's bill is shorter. The nominate subspecies has an entirely black bill. A. n. spilorhynchus has a mostly black bill with some dark red at the base and on the upper part of the maxilla. A. n. occidentalis has a bill like that of spilorhynchus but the red of the maxilla extends more than half way along the culmen.
Distribution and habitat
The subspecies of black-billed mountain toucan are found thus:| Image | Subspecies | Distribution |
| A. n. nigrirostris | the Andes of western Venezuela and the eastern slope of Colombia's Eastern Andes | |
| A. n. occidentalis | Colombia's Western Andes | |
| A. n. spilorhynchus | from the Central Andes and western slope of the Eastern Andes of Colombia south through Ecuador on the eastern Andean slope into far northwestern Peru's Department of Piura. |
The black-billed mountain toucan inhabits a variety of landscapes including cloudforest, subtropical to temperate montane forest, and more open areas such as croplands near forest and open sites with scattered trees. In elevation it mostly ranges between but occurs rarely down to and has been found as high as.