General

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 appear scaled. Sexes are similar.

Range and Habitat

Smooth-billed Ani: This species is a resident in southern Florida, throughout the West Indies, the extreme eastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, and is also found in American tropics. Preferred habitats include open agricultural country, often near cattle or other livestock; also found in scrub and thickets.

Breeding and Nesting

Smooth-billed Ani: Three to six pale blue eggs are laid in a nest made of twigs and weeds, lined with grass, and built 5 to 30 feet above the ground in a dense shrub or tree. Eggs are incubated for 14 days by both parents, sometimes assisted by extra birds.

Foraging and Feeding

Smooth-billed Ani: Eats mainly insects, but also takes lizards, cattle parasites, snails, seeds, fruits, and berries; forages in scrublands and fields, usually on the ground.

Vocalization

Smooth-billed Ani: Call is a thin and rising "kweeeelik" or "weu-ick, weu-ick."

Similar Species

Smooth-billed Ani: Groove-billed Ani has smaller bill with a smooth curvature to the bend and grooves, different call, and is found in south Texas; ranges do not overlap.