Galbula Temporal range: Miocene-Recent | |
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Adult female rufous-tailed jacamar (Galbula ruficauda melanogenia) | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Aves |
Order: | Piciformes |
Family: | Galbulidae |
Genus: | Galbula Brisson, 1760 |
Type species | |
Alcedo galbula Linnaeus, 1766 | |
Species | |
10, see text |
Galbula is the type and largest genus of the jacamar family (Galbulidae) of piciform birds, and its suborder Galbulae. Sometimes, the Piciformes are split in two, with the Galbulae upranked to full order Galbuliformes. [1]
The genus was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the green-tailed jacamar (Galbula galbula) as the type species. [2] [3] The name galbula is the Latin word for a small yellow bird. [4]
They are smallish to mid-sized forest birds of the Neotropics, with long pointed bills, elongated tails, and small feet. Colored in metallic iridescent hues – typically greenish – at least on the upperside, some have a red or brownish belly. Males and females are generally similar in appearance, but in most species differ in minor plumage details. As usual for Piciformes, they nest in burrows they dig out themselves. In the case of this genus, nests are dug in earthen banks along rivers or roads, or in termitaria. As with other jacamars but otherwise unknown among Piciformes, their chicks do not hatch naked. They have a piping song and feed in typical jacamar fashion, by catching flying arthropods, typically larger insects such has butterflies. [1]
Most Galbula species are fairly common in their natural range, which despite rampant deforestation is still extensive. Only the coppery-chested jacamar (G. pastazae) occurs in a more restricted region in the Andes foothills, and is considered a threatened species. [1]
Ten living species are presently recognized in this genus: [5]
Image | Scientific name | Common Name | Distribution |
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![]() | Galbula albirostris | Yellow-billed jacamar | Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela |
![]() | Galbula cyanicollis | Blue-necked jacamar | Amazon rainforest of Brazil, far northern Bolivia and eastern Peru |
![]() | Galbula ruficauda | Rufous-tailed jacamar | southern Mexico, Central America and South America as far south as southern Brazil and Ecuador |
![]() | Galbula galbula | Green-tailed jacamar | Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela |
![]() | Galbula pastazae | Coppery-chested jacamar | southern Colombia, Ecuador and far northern Peru |
![]() | Galbula cyanescens | Bluish-fronted jacamar | western Amazon Basin of Brazil, Peru and far northwestern Bolivia. |
![]() | Galbula tombacea | White-chinned jacamar | Amazon Basin of Colombia, Amazonas and northern parts of Ecuador and Peru |
![]() | Galbula chalcothorax | Purplish jacamar | western Amazon Basin of Ecuador, Peru, southern Colombia and western parts of Acre and Amazonas |
![]() | Galbula leucogastra | Bronzy jacamar | Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela |
| Galbula dea | Paradise jacamar | Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Guyanas |
A fossil species, Galbula hylochoreutes , has been described from the mid-Miocene of Colombia. It was apparently more specialized for aerial feeding than the living species. [6]
The jacamars are a family, Galbulidae, of birds from tropical South and Central America, extending up to Mexico. The family contains five genera and 18 species. The family is closely related to the puffbirds, another Neotropical family, and the two families are often separated into their own order, Galbuliformes, separate from the Piciformes. They are principally birds of low-altitude woodlands and forests, and particularly of forest edge and canopy.
The sugarbirds are a small genus, Promerops, and family, Promeropidae, of passerine birds, restricted to southern Africa. In general appearance and habits, they resemble large, long-tailed sunbirds or some of the Australian honeyeaters, but are not closely related to the former and are even more distantly related to the latter. They have brownish plumage, the long downcurved bill typical of passerine nectar feeders, and long tail feathers.
The piapiac is an African bird in the crow family, and is the only member of the genus Ptilostomus. It is most closely related to the Central Asian ground jays.
The horned screamer is a species of bird that belongs to a relatively small family, the Anhimidae, which occurs in wetlands of tropical South America. There are three screamer species, the other two being the southern screamer and the northern screamer in the genus Chauna. They are related to the ducks, geese and swans, which are in the family Anatidae, but have bills looking more like those of game birds.
Grus is a genus of large birds in the crane family.
The grey-capped greenfinch or Oriental greenfinch is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae that breeds in broadleaf and conifer woodlands of the East Palearctic.
The cocks-of-the-rock, which compose the genus Rupicola, are large cotingid birds native to South America. The first alleged examples of this species were documented during a research expedition led by the explorer and biologist Sir Joshua Wilson in the mid-1700s. They are found in tropical and subtropical rainforests close to rocky areas, where they build their nests. The genus is composed of only two known extant species: the Andean cock-of-the-rock and the smaller Guianan cock-of-the-rock. The Andean cock-of-the-rock is the national bird of Peru.
The paradise jacamar is a species of bird in the family Galbulidae. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
Tangara is a large genus of birds of the tanager family. It includes 27 species. All are from the Neotropics, and while most are fairly widespread, some have small distributions and are threatened. They are fairly small, ranging in size from 11.5–15 centimetres (4.5–5.9 in). This genus includes some of the most spectacularly colored birds of the world.
Manacus is a genus of passerine birds in the manakin family which are found in the forests of tropical mainland Central and South America, and on Trinidad and Tobago.
The Cape batis is a small, stout insect-eating passerine bird in the wattle-eye family. It is endemic to the Afromontane forests of southern Africa.
The goldenthroats are a small group of hummingbirds in the genus Polytmus.
The yellow-green grosbeak is a species of grosbeak in the family Cardinalidae.
The slate-coloured grosbeak is a species of grosbeak in the family Thraupidae. Most of its range is the Amazon in South America, but it is also found in forests of the Chocó in Ecuador and Colombia, and southern Central America from Panama to Honduras.
Bucco is a genus of birds in the puffbird family Bucconidae. Birds in the genus are native to the Americas.
The Cape starling, also known as red-shouldered glossy-starling or Cape glossy starling, is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is found in Southern Africa, where it lives in woodlands, bushveld and in suburbs.
The coleto is a starling species in the monotypic genus Sarcops. It is endemic to the Philippines. Its natural habitats are tropical dry forest, tropical moist lowland forest, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest. In Filipino and Tagalog, this bird is known as kuling or koleto, while in Central Visayas, it is commonly known as the sal-ing.
The red-rumped cacique is a species of bird in the family Icteridae. It is a species of the Amazon Basin and the Guyanas in northern South America, and is only coastal there in the Guyanas and the Amazon River outlet to the Atlantic; a separate large disjunct range exists in all of south-eastern and coastal Brazil, including Paraguay, and parts of north-eastern Argentina. It is also found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
The purple-throated euphonia is a songbird species in the family Fringillidae. It was formerly placed in the Thraupidae.
Cotinga is a genus of passerine birds belonging to the cotinga family, Cotingidae. It contains seven species that are found in tropical rainforest in South and Central America from southern Mexico to south-east Brazil. They feed mainly on fruit and forage high in trees.