Spangled Cotinga

The Spangled Cotinga is a brilliantly colored canopy bird of Amazonian forests, its male plumage a vivid turquoise-blue overall, with each feather subtly edged or spangled to give a shimmering, textured look under good light. A patch of rich dark purple covers the throat and part of the breast, providing bold contrast against the blue body.

Females are entirely different in appearance, being brown overall with pale, scaly-looking barring across the underparts, a cryptic pattern well suited to the female's solitary role at the nest. This marked difference between the sexes is characteristic of the cotinga family broadly.

Spangled Cotingas spend much of their time perched quietly and almost motionless high in the canopy, making them easy to overlook despite the male's dazzling coloration, until a bird takes flight between fruiting trees.

Key field marks

• Male: turquoise-blue body with a dark purple throat and breast patch, feathers subtly spangled
• Female: brown overall with pale, scaly barring below
• High canopy dweller
• Compact, stocky cotinga shape

Similar species

Plum-throated Cotinga is very similar but shows a more extensive, deeper purple patch reaching further down the underparts and a slightly different shade of blue; range overlap occurs in parts of the western Amazon, making careful comparison of the throat patch extent useful for separating the two.

Habitat

The Spangled Cotinga inhabits the canopy of humid lowland forest, typically remaining high above the ground in the upper canopy and rarely coming to lower levels.

Range

It occurs across the Amazon basin and Guiana Shield, including Venezuela, the Guianas, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil.

Migration

It is largely sedentary, with local movements likely tied to fruiting tree availability.

Behavior

Spangled Cotingas typically sit quietly and motionless in the high canopy, with the male's bright blue plumage becoming most obvious when it flies between fruiting trees or perches in the open at a canopy gap.

Voice

Vocalizations are limited and simple, as is typical of cotingas, without an elaborate territorial song.

Feeding

It feeds almost entirely on fruit, foraging in the canopy by plucking fruit while perched or during a brief sallying flight.

Nesting and breeding

As with other cotingas, the female alone builds a small nest and raises the young unassisted, consistent with the family's typically promiscuous mating system.