Paradise Jacamar

The paradise jacamar is 25.5 to 34 cm (10.0 to 13.4 in) long and weighs 25 to 32.5 g (0.88 to 1.15 oz). Both sexes of the nominate have a dark brown crown and are glossy black on the rest of the upper parts. They have a white throat and upper breast; the rest of the underparts are blackish. The other subspecies differ in a few ways. G. d. amazonum's crown is lighter and the white throat more extensive, and G. d. phainopepla is similar to it. G. d. brunneiceps's crown is lighter and its upper parts have a bronzy greenish sheen.

The paradise jacamar is found throughout most of the Amazon Basin. The subspecies are distributed thus:

G. d. dea: from the upper Orinoco River in southern Venezuela east through the Guianas and in Brazil north of the Amazon River. G. d. amazonum: north central Brazil south to northern Mato Grosso state and northern Bolivia. G. d. brunneiceps: southeastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador and Peru, and western Brazil south of the Amazon and west of the Negro River. G. d. phainopepla: western Brazil south of the Amazon and west of the Madeira River. The paradise jacamar mostly inhabits terra firme, várzea, and savanna forests, both primary and secondary. It is also found in dry forest and gallery forest. It is most often found along edges or in open areas such as clearings and treefalls, and rarely in the forest interior. Unusually for a jacamar, it is mostly seen in the canopy rather than the mid level. It is most often found below 500 m (1,600 ft) of elevation but locally occurs up to 1,100 m (3,600 ft).

The paradise jacamar's diet is primarily Lepidoptera, Odonata, Diptera, and Hymenoptera, but it also takes other flying insects. It perches on exposed branches by itself, in pairs, or in small groups and sallies out to catch its prey. It sometimes joins mixed-species foraging flocks in the canopy.