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| The Rufous-tailed Jacamar (Galbula ruficauda Cuvier 1816) is a beautiful inhabitant of forest edges and clearings of Central and South America. It occurs in several disjunct populations: from eastern Mexico south to western Panama; from eastern Panama south to western Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela; in Guyana; and from Bolivia east to eastern Brazil. The six recognized subspecies of Rufous-tailed Jacamar vary slightly in the amounts of black on the chin and in the number of green central rectrices, but in general males are an iridescent coppery/golden green above with a white throat and cinnamon-rufous underparts. Females are a slightly duller green and have a cinnamon-buff throat. Rufous-tailed Jacamars feed almost exclusively on flying insects, especially dragonflies, butterflies and moths. These birds forage from a perch on an exposed branch 1 to 3 meters from the ground, and sally out to catch insects on the wing. After the jacamar has caught an insect it beats it several times against a branch to stun it and remove the insect's wings before it swallows. |
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