The Chestnut-eared Aracari, Pteroglossus castanotis, is a bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

 native to central and south-eastern South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

. It belongs to the toucan

Toucan

Toucans are members of the family Ramphastidae of near passerine birds from the Neotropics. The family is most closely related to the American barbets. They are brightly marked and have large, often colorful bills. The family includes five genera and about forty different species...

 and aracari

Aracari

The aracaris are medium-sized toucans in the genus Pteroglossus. As denoted by the presence of the cedilla on the C , the proper pronunciation is "ahr-uh-SAHR-ee" not "ahr-uh-KAR-ee"....

 family

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is* a taxonomic rank. Other well-known ranks are life, domain, kingdom, phylum, class, order, genus, and species, with family fitting between order and genus. As for the other well-known ranks, there is the option of an immediately lower rank, indicated by the...

 (Ramphastidae). P. castanotis is a larger, more colorful bird than the Black-necked Aracari

Black-necked Aracari

The Black-necked Aracari is a species of bird in the Ramphastidae family. It measures 35-45 cm long and weighs 177-309 grams It is a typical but thickset aracari with a single red band across its otherwise yellow chest.It is found in Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, and Venezuela.Its...

 (P. aracari), which it otherwise resembles.

The range of the Chestnut-eared Aracari is the southern Amazon Basin

Amazon Basin

The Amazon Basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries that drains an area of about , or roughly 40 percent of South America. The basin is located in the countries of Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela...

, especially the southwestern of this region. It is also found in the eastern Andean

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

 foothills; a narrowing range extension enters central-southern Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 by 900 kilometres (559.2 mi).

The southern Amazon Basin range narrows in the southeast to only the upstream half-headwaters of the north-flowing Amazon River

Amazon River

The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...

 tributaries. This range continues southeastwards into the central and southern cerrado

Cerrado

The Cerrado, is a vast tropical savanna ecoregion of Brazil, particularly in the states of Gioas and Minas Gerais...

 and ends in the Paraná River

Paraná River

The Paraná River is a river in south Central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina for some . It is second in length only to the Amazon River among South American rivers. The name Paraná is an abbreviation of the phrase "para rehe onáva", which comes from the Tupi language...

 region in eastern Paraguay

Paraguay

Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...

, southeastern Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 and the extreme northeast of Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

.

Ischnocera

Ischnocera

The Ischnocera is a large suborder of lice mostly parasitic on birds but including a large family parasitic on mammals. The genus Trichophilopterus is also found on mammals but probably belongs to the "avian Ischnocera" and represents a host switch from birds to mammals...

n lice

Louse

Lice is the common name for over 3,000 species of wingless insects of the order Phthiraptera; three of which are classified as human disease agents...

 found on the Chestnut-eared Aracari were first described as Austrophilopterus cancellosus castanotus, but these parasites are actually indistinguishable from those on most other Pteroglossus, and today united with them in Austrophilopterus flavirostris.

External links

• Chestnut-eared Aracari videos on the Internet Bird Collection
• Chestnut-eared Aracari photo gallery VIREO
• Photo-High Res; Article tropicalbirding–"Southeast Brazil"
• Photo-Medium Res; Photo and Species analysis www.nfss.org–"Chestnut Eared Aracari"