The pied puffbird (Notharchus tectus) is a species of bird in the family Bucconidae, the puffbirds, nunlets, and nunbirds. It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. Taxonomy and systematics The pied puffbird was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in 1780 in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux from a specimen collected in Cayenne, French Guiana. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-colored plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle that was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Bucco tectus in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The pied puffbird is now placed in the genus Notharchus that was introduced by the German ornithologists Jean Cabanis and Ferdinand Heine in 1863. The generic name combines the Ancient Greek nōthēs meaning "sluggish" and arkhos meaning "leader" or "chief". The specific epithet tectus is Latin for "covered" or "concealed". The International Ornithological Committee (IOC) and the Clements taxonomy recognize these three subspecies. However, BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) treats subtectus as a separate species, "lesser pied puffbird". N. t. subtectus (Sclater, PL, 1860) N. t. picatus (Sclater, PL, 1856) N. t. tectus (Boddaert, 1783) The genus Notharchus was for a time merged into Bucco by some authorities but has generally been restored to its former status. Description The pied puffbird is long and weighs . The nominate subspecies is mostly glossy black above and white below. It has a white line from the bill through the eye, white speckles on the crown, a large white spot on the scapulars, and white near the base of the tail and at its end. A broad black band separates the breast from the belly and the flanks are barred black and white. N. t. picatus is larger and darker than the nominate, with less white on the tail feathers. N. t. subtectus is smaller than the nominate, with a narrower breast band, less white spotting on the crown, and grayer flanks with little white barring. Distribution and habitat The nominate subspecies of pied puffbird is found in southern Venezuela, the Guianas, and northern Amazonian Brazil as far east as the state of