The eastern striolated puffbird is a species of bird in the family Bucconidae, the puffbirds, nunlets, and nunbirds. It is found in Bolivia and Brazil.
Region
Amazon Basin
Typical Environment
Occurs in the eastern and south-central Amazon of Brazil and adjacent northern Bolivia. It favors edges of terra firme and seasonally flooded forests, secondary growth, riverine woodlands, and clearings with scattered trees. Birds typically use open perches along forest margins, old roads, and stream banks where visibility for sallying is good. It avoids the densest interior understory but can be found in light gaps and along ecotones between forest and open areas.
Altitude Range
Sea level to 900 m
Climate Zone
Tropical
Ease of Keeping
Beginner friendly: 1/5
Puffbirds are sit-and-wait predators that sally from low to mid-level perches to snatch prey, often returning to the same branch. The eastern striolated puffbird’s fine streaking helps it blend into dappled forest light. Like many puffbirds, it excavates a burrow in earthen banks or sometimes termitaria for nesting. It is closely related to the western striolated puffbird (Nystalus obamai), from which it is now split.
Temperament
solitary and territorial
Flight Pattern
short rapid wingbeats between perches
Social Behavior
Usually encountered singly or in pairs that maintain year-round territories. Pairs communicate with duets and coordinate perch-hunting within their home range. Nesting is in a self-excavated burrow in an earthen bank or occasionally in a termite nest, where 2–3 eggs are laid.
Migratory Pattern
Resident
Song Description
A simple, clear series of whistled notes, often rising or evenly pitched and spaced. Pairs may duet, with one bird answering the other’s phrase. Calls are carrying and given at dawn and during overcast periods.
Plumage
Warm brown to rufescent upperparts with fine pale streaks, buffy underparts heavily striated with dark brown, and a barred tail. The throat is paler, often whitish, contrasting with a dusky malar area.
Diet
Primarily large insects such as grasshoppers, beetles, mantises, and caterpillars; also takes spiders and occasionally small vertebrates like tiny lizards. Prey is spotted from an exposed perch and seized in short sallies to the ground or foliage. Items are often beaten against a perch before swallowing.
Preferred Environment
Feeds along forest edges, light gaps, river margins, and secondary woodlands where visibility from perches is high. It uses mid- to low-level perches along trails and clearings and sometimes along stream banks.
