Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
THE FREE-TOED PERCHING BIRDS
THE CHATTERERS
Typical Cotingas
In the typical Cotingas (Cotingince), of which there are a dozen genera and about forty species, the plumage vies in brilliancy and beauty with some of the most gorgeous of Old World birds, not excepting the famed Birds-of-Paradise. They are mostly between six and ten inches in length, with slender tarsi and feet and are strictly arboreal in habit. They are natives for the most part of the dense forests of northern South America and Brazil, very few extending into Central America. Of those reaching Costa Rica, mention may be made of the Holy Ghost Bird (Carpodecles nitidus), which Dr. Richmond found to be a common species on the Rio Frio. This species is snow-white in color, or with a slight wash of bluish on the back, and has the bill plumbeous and the feet black; the whole length is ten inches. They were found by Richmond to be gorging themselves with fruits from a heavily laden tree near the edge of a forest, and were quite silent at the time.
As examples of the coloration of the true Cotingas we may mention briefly the Blue Cotinga (Cotinga carulea), the male of which is bright ultramarine-blue above and rich reddish purple beneath, the wings and tail being black; the female is brownish black squamated and spotted with buffy. The closely related Banded Cotinga (C cincta) of southeastern Brazil is similar to the last, but has a narrow band of bright blue through the reddish purple of the breast.