Figure 327. This first-spring Groove-billed Ani, photographed on 28 May 1993 in Goleta, Santa Barbara County, was known to be present there from 13 April to 8 June. The species had staged a minor incursion into southern California the previous fall (1993-095; Don DesJardin).

 

 

 

 

 

GROOVE-BILLED ANI Crotophaga sulcirostris Swainson, 1827

Accepted: 11 (100%)	Treated in Appendix H: no
Not accepted: 0	CBRC review: all records
Not submitted/reviewed: 1	Color image: none

This member of the cuckoo family breeds from southern Texas and southern Sonora south across most of Middle America—formerly including the Cape District of Baja California Sur—and along the northern and western coasts of South America. The species is partially nomadic, with birds wandering regularly in fall and winter along the Gulf coast east to Florida, casually west to southern California, and accidentally north to South Dakota, Minnesota, northern Ontario, and New Jersey. Vagrants have also been recorded on the Islas Revillagigedo.

California’s first Groove-billed Ani was a first-fall bird present 4–16 November 1974 along the San Jacinto River near Lakeview, Riverside County. The species has now been recorded eight times as a fall vagrant (13 September–16 November) and at least twice during winter (8 November–4 May). In addition, a bird present from 13 April to 8 June 1993 in Goleta, Santa Barbara County (Figure 327), probably arrived during the fall of 1992 as part of an influx that accounts for nearly half of the state’s records. This record and one from Galileo Hill in eastern Kern County are the state’s northernmost. Southern California’s several records generally conform to the broader pattern established in the Southwest, where most Groove-billed Anis are found between early September and late December with a peak in October (Mlodinow and Karlson 1999).