[2] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.

[3] The greater ani was also described and illustrated in 1779 by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux.

[4][5] When in 1788 the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin revised and expanded Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae, he included the greater ani.

The greater ani feeds on large insects (such as beetles, grasshoppers and caterpillars)[10] and even spiders,[10] lizards, frogs, fruits, berries and Euphorbia seeds.

[10] The nest, built and lived in communally by two to five pairs, is a deep cup lined with leaves and placed usually 2–5 m (6.6–16.4 ft) high in a tree.

[11] A number of females lay their chalky deep blue eggs in the nest and then share incubation and feeding.