Sharpbill - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by Francisco Paludo
Ribeirão Grande, SP, Brasil, July, 2018

Oxyruncus cristatus

Identification

Photo © by Luiz
Intervales State Park, SP, Brazil, August 2009

17 cm (6¾ in)

• Orange erectile crest
• Black-spotted yellowish underparts
• Scaling on the head and neck
• Sharp bill

Distribution

Central and South America
Central America: Costa Rica and Panama
South America: Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina.

This species has several non-contiguous populations.

Taxonomy

Subspecies

Six subspecies are recognized¹:

• O. c. frater:

• Discontinuously distributed Costa Rica and western Panama

• O. c. brooksi:

• Mountains of eastern Panama

• O. c. hypoglaucus:

• Mountains of Guyana, Suriname and south-eastern Venezuela

• O. c. phelpsi:

• Mountains of Venezuela (Bolívar and Amazonas) and adjacent Guyana

• O. c. tocantinsi:

• Central Brazil (Goiás to Pará and Amapá)

• O. c. cristatus:

• Disjunct ranges in south-eastern Brazil, southern Paraguay, eastern Bolivia and eastern Peru

• O. c. subsp?

• A population found in the northern part of central Andes of Colombia is not assigned to any of the current subspecies and might well belong to an undescribed subspecies

Restall² additionally mentions tacarcunae but that name is not valid.

Habitat

Canopy of wet forest.

Behaviour

Diet

The diet consists of large and small fruit and berries, with the addition of some invertebrates.

Breeding

The small cup nest is built by the female and placed on a branch. The adult disgorges food to the chicks.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2018. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2018. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Avibase
3. Restall et al. 2006. Birds of Northern South America. Yale University Press. ISBN 9780300124156
4. Birdforum thread discussing taxonomy of Sharpbill
5. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved Sept 2018)
6. Wikipedia

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Sharpbill. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 9 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Sharpbill

External Links

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