# Rufous-tailed Jacamar

*Galbula ruficauda*

To safely eat stinging wasps or bees, the jacamar beats and rubs the insect's abdomen against a branch to remove the stinger before swallowing.

- **Taxonomy:** Animalia › Chordata › Aves › Piciformes › Galbulidae › Galbula
- **IUCN Red List status:** Least Concern
- **Population trend:** decreasing
- **Biome:** forest
- **Habitat:** Tropical dry and moist lowland forests, gallery forests, and woodland edges.
- **Diet:** Insectivorous, specializing in flying insects such as butterflies, dragonflies, wasps, and bees.
- **Range:** Central America, South America
- **Size:** 25 cm (10 in) in length, including the 5 cm needle-like bill; weighs about 25 grams.
- **Lifespan:** Approximately 5 to 8 years in the wild.
- **Active:** diurnal
- **Threats:** Deforestation, habitat fragmentation, and pesticide use reducing insect prey populations.
- **Safe to approach?:** Harmless and dazzling to observe. Keep a respectful distance of 5 to 10 meters to avoid disrupting its hunting perches. If it approaches, remain still; this bird poses no threat to humans.

## About

The rufous-tailed jacamar ( Galbula ruficauda ) is a near-passerine bird which breeds in the tropical New World in southern Mexico, Central America and South America as far south as southern Brazil and Ecuador.

## Sources

- Plate: https://gaia-dex.com/species/fa8566b4-8e9f-42cd-95a4-2ad216a7829e
- iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/1468
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galbula ruficauda
- Conservation status: IUCN Red List category, as recorded by Gaia-Dex
- Photo: https://inaturalist-open-data.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/177334058/medium.jpg (Trevor Van Loon, CC-BY, via iNaturalist)

Habitat, diet, size and similar notes are AI-written summaries; check them against the linked sources before relying on them.