Birds and Birding's Guide to:

Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS

THE FREE-TOED PERCHING BIRDS

THE CHATTERERS

Cocks-of-the-Rock

This brings us to the confines of the fourth group (Rupicolince),1 the typical genus of which embraces the marvelous and beautiful Cocks-of-the-Rock (Rupicola). They are large birds for the family, being twelve or thirteen inches long, with rather short but very strong legs and feet, for their habits are terrestrial, and a rather high, compressed bill which is slightly notched at the tip. They have a very large, elevated, and compressed crest which almost conceals the upper mandible, while in the male the wing is curiously modified in that the inner web of the outermost primary is cut away from the tip. The tail is rather short and squared and the feathers of the shoulders and vicinity are more or less soft and plume-like. The sexes are very different in coloration, the males being largely a brilliant orange, orange-yellow, or orange-red throughout, and the females a dull olive-brownish. Of the three species the best-known is R. rupicola of Guiana and Amazonia, in which the wings are brown with a broad white transverse bar, the wings and tail being black in R. peruviana, which ranges from Venezuela to Bolivia and along upper Amazonia. The third species (R. sanguinolenta), which is similar to the last but has the plumage blood-red, occurs in western Ecuador and Colombia.
The Cocks-of-the-Rock are found in densely forested places, especially along the headwaters of small streams, where their brilliant plumage makes a fine setting for the otherwise somber surroundings. During the breeding season the males have the habit of congregating in certain suitable localities for the purpose of dancing or showing off before a group of admiring females. But one male performs at a time, hopping upward, swaying the head from side to side and extending the wings and in every way displaying his gorgeous colors to the best advantage. At a signal note he retires from the ring when tired and another immediately takes it up. The nesting habits are no less peculiar, as described by Mr. T. K. Salmon for the last-mentioned species. Following up a mountain stream until the gorge became more enclosed and more rocky, they came finally to the mouth of a cave overshadowed by high trees and into which the sun never penetrated.”All was wet and dark, and the only sound heard was the rushing of the water over the rocks. We had hardly become accustomed to the gloom when a nest was found, a dark bird stealing away from what appeared to be a lump of mud on the face of the rock. This, upon examination, proved to be a nest of the Cock-of-the-Rock, containing two eggs; it was built upon a projecting piece, the body being made of mud or clay, then a few sticks, and on the top lined with green moss.”The eggs were pale buff in color, spotted, chiefly at the large end, with spots of red-brown or lilac. The males and females are rarely seen in company, though often going about in separate flocks.
In the only other genus (Phmicocercus) associated in this subfamily the tarsi and feet are of moderate size, the crest recumbent, and the shortened wing has the terminal portion of the fourth primary modified into a thickened, horny process; the two brilliantly beautiful species are natives of Guiana, Ecuador, and upper Amazonia. In P. nigricollis, a bird eight and a half inches long, the plumage above is velvety black, the wings brown, and the crested crown, rump, and upper tail-coverts, tail, and under parts bright scarlet, relieved on the tail by a broad black tip and on the throat by velvety black. The female is yellowish olive-brown, tinged with reddish and duller scarlet below.

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