Boat-billed Heron

Appearance

The Boatbilled Heron is about 54 cm long. The adult has a black crown, long crest and upper back. The face, throat and breast are white, and the lower underparts are rufous with black flanks. The wings and lower back are pale grey. The massive broad scoop-like bill, which gives rise to this species' name, is mainly black. Immature birds have mainly brown upperparts and brown-tinged whitish underparts, and lack the crest.

Naming

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the boat-billed heron in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in French Guiana. He used the French name La Cuillière and the Latin Cochlearius.[2] Brisson placed the species in a new genus Cochlearius (with the same name as that of the species).[3] When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.[4] One of these was the boat-billed heron. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Cancroma cochlearia and cited Brisson's work.[5]

Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). However, Brisson also introduced names for genera and these are accepted by the ICZN. The boat-billed heron is now placed in Brisson's genus and has the tautonym Cochlearius cochlearius. The name Cochlearius is from the Latin cocleare, coclearis or cochlearium for a "spoon in the form of a snail shell".

Distribution

There are five subspecies with known distribution detailed below:
C. c. zeledoni (Ridgway, 1885) – west Mexico
C. c. phillipsi Dickerman, 1973 – east Mexico, Belize
C. c. ridgwayi Dickerman, 1973 – south Mexico to Honduras
C. c. panamensis Griscom, 1926 – Costa Rica and Panama
C. c. cochlearius (Linnaeus, 1766) – north and central South America

Behavior

This species feeds on fish, mice, water snakes, eggs, crustaceans, insects and amphibians. Its calls include a deep croak and a high-pitched "pee-pee-pee".