#pompadour cotinga

This month's #BirdWhisperer is the Pompadour Cotinga, a little lad from a amazonian rainforest.

August's Bird Whisperer bird is the Pompadour Cotinga

This was my first time encountering this bird and I loved how vibrant his plumage was. Something about the pose gave me a little bit of side-eye and as I started drawing him he developed 100% sass by bodyweight.

Today's animal of the day is the Pompadour Cotinga (Xipholena punicea)!

Photo credit: Mike Goad

This brightly colored bird inhabits the rainforests of Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela. The males of this species are a bright reddish-burgundy color, with white markings on their wings, and bright yellow eyes. Meanwhile, the females are a more drab, pale gray color. This is because the males must perform an elaborate mating dance in order to attract the attention of a female, and the brighter the colors means that the more likely that he will father offspring who will survive into adulthood, since he's survived being hunted by a predator despite being so colorful, so that must mean he has some good genes.

Photo credit: Claudia Brasileiro

These mating displays involve a small flock of males finding the nest of a female and chasing one another off perches in order to assert their dominance over each other while the female watches from below. The sound of the males' wings flapping during these displays is often compared to that of tree frogs croaking. However, the birds don't typically make any vocalizations during these displays. Though both the males and females will often make a loud "purp" sound while they are foraging for food. Once the female chooses the male she likes best, they will mate, and the male will leave her to do all of the work incubating the single egg she will lay and caring for the chick once it hatches. This is why the female is a much less conspicuous color, since she doesn't want to turn herself into a target while she's incubating her egg.

Photo credit: Sidnei Dantas

Pompadour Cotinga

Pompadour Cotinga vs Beautiful Nuthatch

sources under cut

Pompadour Cotinga Propaganda

"Red velvet cake bird!"

While in the wild these birds are highly frugivorous, only opportunistically taking insects, there has been a report of a captive bird grabbing and anole and hitting it against a perch before eating it. Likely "supplemental" feeding such as this happens during the breeding season, when the birds burn more energy and have chicks to feed.

Beautiful Nuthatch Propaganda

"what can I say...... they're beautiful"

Classified by IUCN as vulnerable, this species seems to have already been rare and highly localized in the regions where it is found. They prefer montane forests on the mainland of Southeast Asia.

They will form small groups of four to five birds, and often join in on mixed-species foraging flocks.