SummaryThe Bearded Bellbird Procnias averano, a medium‐sized sexually dimorphic cotingid, was studied for three years in the Northern Range of Trinidad.Its preferred habitat is primary forest at altitudes of 500–1,000 feet and with a rainfall near 100 inches. It is entirely frugivorous, taking mostly drupes. The seeds of the fruits eaten are regurgitated and nearly 2,000 were collected from below the male's calling perch and below nests. Most were from the families Lauraceae and Burseraceae, whose fruits have particularly nutritious pericarps.Adult males own a calling territory from which they call throughout most of the day, and throughout the year except for the period of moult. In each territory there are special saplings where display and mating take place.Only males call; the females are voiceless. The call is loud and far‐reaching. In Trinidad P. averano has only two calls, the Venezuelan birds have a third more musical call which appears to have been lost by the Trinidad bellbird during the past 60 years.Both males and females visit the adult male in his calling territory. Here he performs a ritualized display to the visitor, which shows off his black and white plumage, the beard of wattles, and also a bare patch on the thigh. The visit of the female may culminate in mating. All aggressive behaviour observed was between males disputing over calling territories.The female builds the nest, incubates, and rears the chick on her own. The very inconspicious nest is built of twigs that readily interlock. Nearly all the twigs are from two species of tree, and it is suggested that the specialized nest‐material may be essential, as the female bellbird builds only with the breast and feet. The clutch consists of a single egg. The incubation and fledging periods are both long, 23 and 33 days respectively. The female's visits to the chick are infrequent, brief, silent and inconspicuous. Many details of breeding behaviour indicate that the inconspicuousness of the nest is of paramount importance.The nestling is fed on fruit which the female regurgitates. The main breeding season is from April to July with a minor one in October and November. It takes two and a half years for the male to attain fully adult plumage, and at least two years to achieve a completely adult call.The relationship between type of nest, clutch‐size, feeding habits and sexual bonds in tropical forest birds is discussed. The bellbird is an extreme example of a species in which the need for a very inconspicuous nest and a diet of fruit have combined to promote polygamy, with the emancipation of the male from the nest, and to reduce clutch‐size to a minimum.The bellbird's structural adaptations to its method of feeding in flight are discussed and a comparison is made with the birds of paradise. The male's adaptations for its primary function of self‐advertising are compared with the parallel adaptations evolved in the related Pipridae.