About Hypnelus bicinctus (Gould, 1837)
For the two-banded puffbird (Hypnelus bicinctus), the adult of the nominate subspecies has a dark brown crown with pale brown spots. It has a buffy patch that runs from the bill to the eye, a whitish patch on the cheek, and a black patch located below and behind the whitish cheek patch. The nape features a narrow whitish collar. The bird's upperparts are dull brown with whitish mottling, while the closed wing is dull brown with whitish scallops. The long tail is dark brown, with thin pale edges along the feathers. The chin is whitish, and the throat and upper breast are reddish buff. Two black bands stretch across the chest below the upper breast. The remainder of the belly is reddish buff, with black spots along its upper edge, and the flanks are whitish with large black spots. Subspecies H. b. stoicus is similar to the nominate, but is slightly browner and paler on its upperparts, has less dramatically marked facial patterning, and has buff tips on the feathers of the upper black chest band. The nominate subspecies is distributed across the llanos of northeastern Colombia, extending into northern Venezuela. Its range in Venezuela reaches almost to Lake Maracaibo to the west, east nearly to the Guyana border, and extends slightly south into Amazonas and Bolívar states. Subspecies H. b. stoicus is found only on Margarita Island, off the central Venezuelan coast. On the mainland, the species inhabits open and near-open landscapes, including llanos savanna, thickets, abandoned farms, and the edges of deciduous woodland. It occurs almost exclusively at elevations below 500 m (1,600 ft). On Margarita Island, it inhabits bushland and woods ranging from plains into the foothills. No seasonal movements have been documented for the species, even though its habitat undergoes seasonal changes. The species can sometimes be common in an area, then abandon the area for several years.
