Bingo Can you find them all?

Piping Guan Silver-Beaked Tanager Blue-Grey Tanager

Southern Yellow Chiloe Widgeon Black-Spotted Barbet

Red-Capped Yellow-Rumped Cacique Blue-Crowned Motmot

Boatbill Heron If you have more than one group or just while you tour the zoo, this activity can be used by groups not in programs while on zoo grounds. The “Unseen New World / Creatures of the Americas” Aviary houses all of the answer you seek. Piping Guan (Aburria aburri) Chicken-like bird found throughout Northern South America, Southern and a few adjacent Caribbean islands.  Most active in the evening. Eats fruits and seeds.  ‘Piping’ refers to the call it makes during breeding season – a half-dozen whistles, rising in pitch.

Silver -Beaked Tanager (Ramphocelus carbo) Very common bird in woodlands and around cultivated land of northern South America.  Female much darker than male.  Bill really does look metallic!

Blue-Grey Tanager (Thraupis episcosis) Inhabits forest edges and thickets from southern to northern Brazil; very stable population.  Very social bird – defends food sources against other species.  Sexes nearly identical.  Generally nest in orange and avocado trees; occasionally parasitize nests of other , forcing them to hatch eggs and rear chicks.

Southern Yellow Grosbeak (Pheuticus Chrysogaster) Forests and semi-open areas along Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America; occasionally as far north as , and .  Female more olive with grayer wings.  Eats berries, fruits, insects and arthropods and can crack thick seeds with its large bill.

Chiloe Widgeon (Anas Sibilatrix) Duck of freshwater lakes and rivers of southern South America, mainly Argentina and Chile.  Chiloe (pronounced “chee-low-ay”) refers to an island off the coast of Chile where the bird is prevalent.  One of the few ducks where the males take part in the rearing of the ducklings.  Also one on the few waterfowl known to have crossed the hostile Drake Passage, separating the tip of South America from Antarctica.

Black-Spotted Barbet (Capito niger) Stout, thick-billed, short-tailed bird of the subtropical forests and swamplands of Columbia, Venezuela, Peru, northern Brazil, Suriname and the Guianas. Common in its range.  Foot structure has two toes going forward and two going back, like woodpeckers (most birds have three in front and one in back). Often seen hanging or creeping up-side down.  Usually high in canopy searching for fruit and insects.

Red-Capped Cardinal (Paroaria gularis) Found in northern South America. Nests in mangrove swamps semi-open areas around water, but is sometimes seen around developed areas. Population stable.

 Feeds mainly on insects and fruit, but like its northern all-red counterpart is an occasional visitor at feeders for seeds and especially rice.

Yellow-Rumped Cacique (Cacicus sella) Member of the blackbird family prefers semi-open habitats with some large trees from Panama to northern Brazil.  Cacique (pronounced “ka-seek”) is also the name for a South American Indian tribal chief.  Very gregarious and noisy bird (also a good mimic); forms large flocks.

 Nest is a hanging basket type that it often builds near a wasp colony to ward away predators. The wasps don’t bother the caciques – in fact they eat them! Also eats soft fruits.

Blue-Crowned Motmot (Momotus momota) Large, impressive bird is found in and coffee plantations in Mexico, Central and northern South America. Population very stable.  Nests in 5-12’ long tunnels excavated into mud hillsides during rainy season by both parents.  Eats insects, small lizards (which the bird clubs against branches before eating), small bats (!) and some fruit.  Call is a ‘hoot’ much like an owl.

Boatbill Heron (Cochlearius cochlearius) Native to mangrove swamps as well as freshwater marshes, lakes and rivers from southern Mexico to Northern Argentina.  Nocturnal and solitary bird. Spends day high in tree to escape predators.  Uses enormous bill like spoon to scoop up fish, frogs, some snakes and large insects.  Utters frog-like ‘croak’.