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The white-whiskered puffbird (Malacoptila panamensis ), also called the white-whiskered soft-wing or brown puffbird, is a near-passerine bird in the family Bucconidae, the puffbirds, nunlets, and nunbirds. It is found from southeastern Mexico through Central America (except El Salvador), Colombia, and Ecuador into Peru.
The white-whiskered puffbird is about 18 cm (7.1 in) long with an average weight of about 43 g (1.5 oz). Unlike most puffbirds, the male and female have different plumages. Both sexes have bristles around the base of the large bill, and white "whiskers", which are actually tufts of feathers. The nominate adult male's upperparts are brown to chestnut brown. The forecrown has narrow buff or tawny streaks and most of the rest of the upperparts have buff or tawny spots. The tail is chesnut brown. Its lores, supercilium, cheeks, and the sides of the neck are tawny. The throat and upper breast are tawny to tawny buff and the rest of the underparts are buffy white with darker streaks on the breast and flanks. The adult female has less of a chesnut cast; its crown is grayer and its upperparts olive to brown. Most of the underparts are buff to cinnamon-buff with darker streaks; the abdomen is white. Juveniles are like the female but with heavier streaking on the underparts. The subspecies are all similar to the nominate, differing mainly in the shades of gray, brown, and rufous and in the density of the streaking.
