The amazingly bizarre Andean Cock-of-the-rock is maybe the
most widely recognized bird of the cloud forests of the Andes Mountains. The
Andean cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola peruvianus), also known as tunki (Quechua),
is a large passerine bird of the cotinga family native to Andean cloud forests
in South America can be found in cloud forests in the Andes Mountains in
Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia mostly in ravines and forested
streams in montane areas at 500 to 2,400 m elevation. It is national bird of
Peru, is readily identified by its fan-shaped crest and brilliant orange
plumage, neck, breast, and shoulders and has a black body, gray wings, and a
large disk-shaped crest of feathers that extends over its bill. The female is a
brownish-orange over her whole body and has a smaller crest and both of evident
to a lesser degree even in the duller female.
It is a medium-sized perching bird around 12 inches in length
and weighing around 265 grams. The male bird spend much of their time displaying
at leks, (A lek is an area where animals, usually birds, gather to perform
courtship displays) where they jump up and down on particular branches and
utter low, guttural croaks. At the lek, males have been observed to break up
into pairs, performing “confrontation displays”. This consists of facing each
other while bowing, jumping, and flapping their wings, sometimes even snapping
their bills, and at the same time giving off various squawking and grunting
calls. When the female approaches, it becomes even more intense. The bird name is derived from their
preference for rocks and ledges as substrates for their mud cup nests. Often
difficult to detect away from leks, birds can sometimes be found feeding at
fruiting trees eats a diet of fruit and berries, supplemented by insects,
amphibians, reptiles, and smaller mice.
The Andean cock-of-the-rock is found in humid, rocky forested
areas and is often found in ravines near water or by forest streams. It is
usually found at elevations of 1,500-8,900 feet. A cloud forest is a tropical
or subtropical forest that is usually covered by clouds or fog at the canopy
level. The bird is one of many birds species to exhibit marked sexual
dimorphism. The female builds a nest of mud plastered to cave entrances or
rocky outcrops in forest ravines. She
normally lays 2 eggs and incubates them for around 28 days. She cares for the
chicks by herself. The male birds appear to take three years to attain the
adult plumage; however few birds start to show up at displaying leks during
this stage of their lives as subordinate males. Once the orange feathers begin
to appear, it seems the birds continue a progressive molt until the time they
reach the adult plumage by the third year of life. Andean cocks-of-the-rock
face slightly greater predators than smaller songbirds. The Predators are
attracted to leks by the conspicuous behavior of the displaying males. The
animals prey on adult cocks-of-the-rock including hawk-eagles, hawks,
forest-falcons, jaguar, mountain lion, ocelot and the boa constrictor.
It is generally shy and inconspicuous, often seen only
briefly after being flushed out or while swiftly flying down a valley. Andean
cock-of-the-rock males gather in groups in a lek in the forest. The males try
to attract females with a call that sounds bob up and down, bow, and hop around
to display their bright plumage. The male bird is habitually mate with more
than one female. This species has a very large range, and hence does not
approach the thresholds for Vulnerable under the range size criterion; hence
for these reasons the species is evaluated as Least Concern. The Guianan
Cock-of-the-Rock is alike species but has a more orange plumage and lacks the
extent of black feathers on its wings. Source: Charismatic Planet
