The anis are the three species of birds in the genus Crotophaga of the cuckoo family. They are essentially tropical New World birds, although the range of two species just reaches the United States .

A loose-limbed, disheveled-looking bird of tropical dry country, the Groove-billed Ani is always entertaining. These all-black cuckoos have curiously tall, flattened bills marked with narrow grooves, which they use to catch large insects and small lizards.

The groove-billed ani (Crotophaga sulcirostris) is a tropical bird in the cuckoo family with a long tail and a large, curved beak. It is a resident species throughout most of its range, from southern Texas , central Mexico and The Bahamas , through Central America , to northern Colombia and Venezuela , and coastal Ecuador and Peru .

The common, or smooth-billed, ani (C. ani), found from southern Florida to Argentina, is a bird 36 cm (14 inches) long that looks like a huge-beaked grackle. The great ani (C. major) is common in swamplands of South America, chiefly east of the Andes.

The smooth-billed ani (Crotophaga ani) is a bird in the cuckoo family. It is a resident breeding species from southern Florida, the Caribbean, parts of Central America, south to western Ecuador, Brazil, northern Argentina and southern Chile. [2]

Audubon’s scientists have used 140 million bird observations and sophisticated climate models to project how climate change will affect the range of the Groove-billed Ani. Learn even more in our Audubon’s Survival By Degrees project.

Greater is the largest ani, distinctive with its staring yellow eye and glossy blue, green, and purple sheen on the wings and tail. Always associated with water; especially apt to be found low in the forest edge around slow-moving rivers and lakes.

Flies with choppy wingbeats and long glides. Widespread and common throughout much of South America and the Caribbean, extending as far west as the Pacific slope of Costa Rica and north to Florida. Compare with the very similar Groove-billed Ani, which overlaps in some areas of Central and South America.

A loose-limbed, disheveled-looking bird of tropical dry country, the Groove-billed Ani is always entertaining. These all-black cuckoos have curiously tall, flattened bills marked with narrow grooves, which they use to catch large insects and small lizards.

An ungainly bird that seems only loosely stitched together as it moves, the Smooth-billed Ani is a glossy black cuckoo with an oversized bill. Almost always seen in groups, these birds traipse through tangled, shrubby habitats in the tropics of South America and the Caribbean; there's also a small and declining population in Florida.