Golden-collared Toucanet

The golden-collared toucanet is 33 to 35 cm (13 to 14 in) long. The nominate subspecies weighs 129 to 178 g (4.6 to 6.3 oz) and S. r. langsdorffii 134 to 200 g (4.7 to 7.1 oz). The two subspecies have essentially the same plumage. Adult males have a black head, nape, and shoulders. A narrow yellow band separates the black shoulders from the green back. Their tail is green with chestnut tips on the central two or three pairs of feathers. Their eye is surrounded by bare blue skin (greener in S. r. langsdorffii) and a golden-yellow tuft of feathers protrudes behind it. They have mostly black underparts with gold-yellow flanks (more orange in S. r. langsdorffii) and red undertail coverts. Adult females replace the male's black with chestnut; their facial tuft and flanks are duller, and the yellow band on the back is narrower. Immatures are duller overall with rusty undertail coverts. The golden-collared toucanet subspecies' bills differ; within each the sexes have the same pattern, but the female's is shorter. The nominate's bill has a vertical black line at the base and a black culmen. Most of the bill is red, with approximately the outer third black. The maxilla has black to ivory "teeth" along the tomium. S. r. langsdorffii's bill has a mostly black maxilla with a green base and a roughly half-and-half green and black mandible. …

The nominate subspecies of golden-collared toucanet is found from south-central and southeastern Colombia (near the Brazilian border) south through eastern Ecuador into north-central and northeastern Peru. (The map shows only this range.) S. r. langsdorffii is found from north-central and northeastern Peru and western Brazil south into northwestern Bolivia. The species inhabits the interior and edges of montane forest, forest in floodplains, and occasionally várzea. It favors drier uplands and shuns secondary forest. In elevation it most commonly ranges up to about 1,000 m (3,300 ft) but occasionally occurs as high as 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in Ecuador, 1,500 m (4,900 ft) in Peru, and 1,300 m (4,300 ft) in Bolivia.

The golden-collared toucanet forages singly, in pairs, or in groups of up to four, and from the forest's understory to the canopy. It is known to join mixed-species foraging flocks. Its diet is mostly fruit but also includes insects and possibly small birds. It mostly gleans from foliage and branches but also hawks for flying insects.