The three-wattled bell bird living in Central and South America is the world’s loudest bird. Its piercing call can be heard even a kilometre away. It has three bill wattles, one hanging from each side of the mouth and the third from the base of the upper bill.
A mature male three-wattled bellbird is chest-nut brown and between 25 and 30 cm (10-12 in) long – about the size of a grackle. The body, tail, and wings of the male bellbird are uniformly chestnut-brown, its head white with a black eye-ring, eye-stripe, and bill. Its name comes from the three worm-like wattles of skin that hang from the base of the bill. These wattles can be as long as 10 cm (4 in) and the middle of the three can be erected into an upright position.
The female bellbirds are smaller and somewhat less striking in appearance. They are golden-brown across the back of the wings and tail with whitish streaking on the face, a buffy-streaked throat, and golden-brown streaking down the chest with pale-grey undertail coverts.
They feed on fruit, especially those in the Lauraceae family. Because of this they are considered an altitudinal migrant as they follow fruiting peaks around the country and even cross borders into neighboring countries on both North and South ends of Costa Rica.
Credit : Beauty of Birds
Picture Credit : Google
