An unmistakable, exquisite, captivating, oddly shaped bird, covered in bright orange plumage, with a striking half-moon crest.

Meet the Guianan cock-of-the-rock

The Guianan cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola rupicola) is a species of cotinga, a passerine bird endemic to South America. The orange-plumed bird male has a very striking half-moon-shaped crest, along with a black-tipped tail. His wings are orange and white with silky-orange filaments on the inner remiges (birds flight feathers that are attached to the rear portion of the wing bones). Not to be outdone, his bill, legs, and skin are also orange.

Much less conspicuous than the male, the female is a dark shade of brown and grey.

She has a yellow-tipped black bill and a smaller crest than the male.

This species is found in the ancient mountains east of the Andes and north of the Amazon River, in the Guianas, and neighboring countries of Venezuela, Brazil, and Colombia.

Photo Courtesy of Bernard DUPONT / CC BY 2.0

The Guianan cock-of-the-rock like to live in humid forests near rocky outcrops where they dine on fruit and berries However, they will sometimes eat insects if their main source of food is scarce.

During the breeding season, the males build a communal lek to put on a display to attract females. Once a female has selected a male and mating has been completed, the male’s role is over. The female builds a nest under a rocky overhang plastered to the rock with mud into which she lays one to two white eggs. She incubates her eggs for about 28 days and goes on to raise the hatchlings on her own.

Photo Courtesy of AISSE GAERTNER / CC BY-SA 4.0

Due to this species’ extremely large range, its current population does not approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion set by the ICUN.

Watch this bird right here on the video below:

H/T Wikipedia – Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

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