Groove-billed Ani

About the Groove-billed Ani

The Groove-billed Ani is a bird that looks assembled from spare parts - a lanky, floppy-tailed, all-black cuckoo with a huge parrot-like bill scored with grooves, and a wheezy, rising "TEE-ho" call. It flies badly, flapping and gliding from bush to bush with the long tail wobbling behind, and travels in loose noisy groups.

Anis are true communal breeders: several pairs share one big stick nest, all the females lay in it, and the whole group takes turns incubating and feeding the young. They forage in the open, following cattle and horses to snap up the insects flushed by their hooves, and sun themselves with wings spread after cool nights.

In Texas the Groove-billed Ani is a summer bird of the brush country from the Rio Grande Valley north to the Coastal Bend and Hill Country edges, arriving in April and mostly gone by October, with a few lingering through mild winters in the Valley.