Groove-billed Ani (Crotophaga sulcirostris), TimBuckTwo - private property off Arivaca Road, Pima County

This Groove-billed Ani was found and photographed by Kathy Groschupf on 14 June 2018

Groove-billed Ani is a casual visitor with almost 25 previous records. Nearly all these records are concentrated into two time windows, either mid summer (late May to August) or late fall (October to December).

Seen well this large, black cuckoo can only be confused with Smooth-billed Ani, which has never occured in Arizona and probably never will. Separating Smooth-billed from Groove-billed is very tricky, especially because small billed Smooth-billed Anis can have faint grooves on the bill. The combination of a straight lower mandible without a pronounced gonydal angle and the extensive bare skin around the eye are probably the best marks for Groove-billed.

14 June 2018, photo by Kathy Groschupf

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