Melanoptila glabrirostris occurs on the Yucatán peninsula, in
Mexico,
Belize, and
Guatemala. It is a common to fairly common resident on Cozumel Island and from east Quintana Roo, Mexico, to Ambergris Caye, Belize; common to uncommon on Caye Caulker, Lighthouse Reef and Glover's Reef, Belize. Fieldwork on the north coast of the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve has shown the species to be common there (B. Roldán Clarà
in litt. 2008). It is only a scarce and perhaps seasonal or accidental (mainly November-May) visitor over much of the Yucatán peninsula, west to Campeche, Mexico, south to Belize and into Petén, north Guatemala (Phillips 1986, Howell and Webb 1995, B. W. Miller
in litt. 2007, B. W. Miller
in litt. 2008). At least 39 small breeding colonies (c.20 pairs) have been located in the interior of the Yucatán peninsula (including 31 in Yucatán - for example in the Hunucmá area, Izamal and Dzonot Carretero, 6 in Quintana Roo and 2 in Campeche) (B. McKinnon de Montes
in litt. 2008, 2011)
. There are no records from
Honduras since the type-specimen was purportedly collected at Omoa in 1855 or 1856, leading to speculation that the specimen may have been mislabelled
(Ridgely and Gwynne 1989). A precipitous decline from c.2003 to 2008 has been reported from Caye Caulker (B. W. Miller
in litt. 2008).
Rights Holder: International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources
Bibliographic Citation: BirdLife International 2012.
Melanoptila glabrirostris. In: IUCN 2014 . IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2014.1 . <
www.iucnredlist.org>
