Species Account
Smooth-billed Ani is a common breeder in the Bahamas and throughout much of the Caribbean, as well as in Central and South America from western Costa Rica to western Ecuador and northern Argentina (Quinn and Startek-Foote 2020).
In Florida, the breeding status for this species remained unclear for many years. Though the number of specimens collected in the state during the late 19th and early 20th centuries suggested an established breeding population, breeding was not confirmed until a nest was discovered in Miami in 1938. As nesting evidence increased in the ensuing decades, its breeding range was determined to extend from the Keys to Brevard County, including the Lake Okeechobee area, west to Lee County and north to Polk County (Stevenson and Anderson 1994).
From the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, the ani’s breeding range contracted, and numbers of individuals declined significantly, possibly due to unusually cold winters during this period. BBA I atlasers confirmed breeding along the east coast north to Brevard County but nowhere along the Gulf coast. Local populations continued to disappear throughout the 1990s and, by 2010, the species seemed to be nearly extirpated from Florida (Greenlaw et al. 2014).
Banner Photograph: Alexander Lamoreaux
Illustration: Diane Pierce
Updated Status
Compared with BBA I (Wheeler 2003), BBA II observations included 2 possible breeding records, while confirmed breeding records for Smooth-billed Ani fell from 38 to 1, and the total number of comparison blocks that had breeding codes fell from 80 to 3 (Table 1).
The one instance of confirmed breeding during BBA II was a pair observed nest-building at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge (Palm Beach County) in 2015 and 2016. During the 5 years of BBA II, sightings of Smooth-billed Ani were reported in 8 Florida counties: Broward, Glades, Hendry, Martin, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Palm Beach, and Pinellas (eBird 2021). It is unknown whether any of the birds sighted were remnant individuals from Florida’s resident population or vagrants from populations outside of Florida.
Data
Table 1
Quad level comparison of BBA I and BBA II based on the highest breeding code observed for a species within the 6 blocks of each quad.
Figure 1
Smooth-billed Ani quad-level distribution, Florida Breeding Bird Atlas II. Figures 1 and 2 are based on data collected across all six atlas blocks within a quad. Figure 1 is based on the highest breeding code observed in each quad.
Figure 2
Smooth-billed Ani quad-level change detection based on the simple presence or absence of a species at any breeding code level within the quad during each atlas.
References
eBird. 2021. eBird: An online database of bird distribution and abundance [web application]. eBird, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. http://www.ebird.org/. Accessed 5 August 2022.
Greenlaw, J., B. Pranty, and R. Bowman. 2014. The Robertson and Woolfenden Florida bird species: an annotated list. Special Publication No. 8. Florida Ornithological Society, Gainesville, USA.
Quinn, J. S., and J. M. Startek-Foote. 2020. Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani), version 1.0. In A. F. Poole and F. B. Gill, editors. Birds of the World. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York, USA.
Stevenson, H. M., and B. H. Anderson. 1994. The Birdlife of Florida. University Press of Florida. Gainesville, USA.
Wheeler, M. C. 2003. Smooth-billed Ani (Crotophaga ani). In Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), editor. Florida’s breeding bird atlas: A collaborative study of Florida’s birdlife. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Tallahassee, USA. https://myfwc.com/media/19790/bba_sban.pdf.