I finally made it back to Colombia for my second visit and again used the guide services of Pablo Florez. I went with my friend Martin Jackson. We visited Inirida on the Orinoco, Santa Marta of course, Guajira Peninsula on the Caribbean coast, and a couple of National Parks around Bogota.
Cotingas are a New World family of diverse looking birds. They hardly seem like they are related.
The 7.5" male Pompadour Cotinga (Xipholena punicea) is an amazing reddish purple bird with w white wing stripe. This was only my second time to see it.
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| Pompadour Cotinga - male |
The female is just non-descript brown as she takes care of all the nesting and raising the babies.
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| Pompadour Cotinga - female |
There are a dozen greenish cotingas called fruiteaters - although all the cotingas eat fruit primarily. The one on this trip was in Santa Marta - the 7" Golden-breasted Fruiteater (Pipreola aureopectus).
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| Golden-breasted Fruiteater - male |
Another group of cotingas are all blue with the males have different colored throats. The 8" male Spangled Cotinga (Cotinga cayana) has a purple throat.
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| Spangled Cotinga - male |
The next smaller cotinga is the 8" Red-crested Cotinga (Ampelion rubrocristatus). The male is gray with a thin red crest that can be seen along the edge of his head in the photo. He also has a prominent red. He is a resident in the paramo.
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| Red-crested Cotinga - male |
The last 2 are some weird looking birds. The 14" male Bare-necked Fruitcrow (Gymnoderus foetidus) is black with a white neck and wings.
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| Bare-necked Fruitcrow - male |
The female just is black with partial bare neck and the wings are black.
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| Bare-necked Fruitcrow - female |
Lastly is the 18" Amazonian Umbrellabird (Cephalopterus ornatus). It is a black bird with a forward facing crest and a white eye,
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| Amazonian Umbrellabird |
We had 3 species of monkeys for the trip. The largest monkeys in the New World are the howler monkeys. This is a family of Venezuelan Red Howlers (Alouatta seniculus). Males can weigh up to 20 pounds.
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| Venezuelan Red Howler - family |
The Black Titi (Cheracebus lugens) is much smaller at 2 pounds.
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| Black Titi |
The 1 pound Cotton-top Tamarin (Saguinus oedipus) is the cutest of the bunch. It is black with a white bushy crest and white legs. It is listed as critically endangered with fewer than 6,000 estimated still in the wild and is one of the rarest primates in the world. Here is a mother carrying twins on her back.
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| Cotton-top Tamarin - mother with twins |
I put the different bird/mammal families in single folders for easy viewing
I have photos of 19 of the 66 species of cotingas
Happy birding and photography,
David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com
photos copyright 2006 - 2022 David McDonald
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