The cotingas are a large family, Cotingidae, of

suboscine The Tyranni (suboscines) are a suborder of passerine birds that includes more than 1,000 species, the large majority of which are South American. It is named after the type genus '' Tyrannus''. These have a different anatomy of the syrinx mus ...

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

birds found in

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

and

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. Cotingas are birds of forests or forest edges, that are primary frugivorous. They all have broad bills with hooked tips, rounded wings, and strong legs. They range in size from of the fiery-throated fruiteater (''Pipreola chlorolepidota'') up to of the

Amazonian umbrellabird The Amazonian umbrellabird (''Cephalopterus ornatus'') is a species of bird in the family Cotingidae native to the Amazon basin with a separate population on the eastern slopes of the Andes. The male bird is entirely black, with a black crest a ...

(''Cephalopterus ornatus'').

Description

Cotingas vary widely in social structure. There is a roughly 50/50 divide in the family between species with biparental care, and those in which the males play no part in raising the young. The

purple-throated fruitcrow The purple-throated fruitcrow (''Querula purpurata'') is a species of bird in the family Cotingidae, the cotingas. It is the only species of the genus ''Querula''.Schulenberg, T. S., Ed. 2010Purple-throated Fruitcrow (''Querula purpurata'').Neo ...

lives in mixed-sex groups in which one female lays an egg and the others help provide insects to the chick. In cotinga species where only the females care for the eggs and young, the males have striking courtship displays, often grouped together in

leks A lek is an aggregation of male animals gathered to engage in competitive displays and courtship rituals, known as lekking, to entice visiting females which are surveying prospective partners with which to mate. A lek can also indicate an avail ...

. Such

sexual selection Sexual selection is a mode of natural selection in which members of one biological sex mate choice, choose mates of the other sex to mating, mate with (intersexual selection), and compete with members of the same sex for access to members of t ...

results in the males of these species, including the

Guianan cock-of-the-rock The Guianan cock-of-the-rock (''Rupicola rupicola'') is a species of cotinga, a passerine bird from South America. It is about in length and weighs about . It is found in tropical rainforests, near its preferred habitat of rocky outcrops. The f ...

, being brightly coloured, or decorated with plumes or wattles, like the

umbrellabird Umbrellabird is the common name referring to three species of birds in the genus ''Cephalopterus''. They are named for their distinct umbrella-like hoods. The umbrellabird was described by Sir Alfred Wallace, a companion of Charles Darwin, i ...

s, with their umbrella-like crest and long throat wattles. Other lekking cotingids like the bellbirds and

screaming piha The screaming piha (''Lipaugus vociferans'') is a species of passerine bird in the family Cotingidae. It is found in humid forests in the Amazon and tropical parts of the Mata Atlântica in South America. They are most notable for their extraor ...

, have distinctive and far-carrying calls. In such canopy-dwelling genera as ''

Carpodectes ''Carpodectes'' is a genus of passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are di ...

'', '' Cotinga'', and ''

Xipholena ''Xipholena'' is a genus of passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are dist ...

'', males gather high in a single tree or in adjacent trees, but male cocks-of-the-rock, as befits their more terrestrial lives, give their elaborate displays in leks on the ground. The females of both lekking and biparental species are duller than the males.

Breeding

Nests range from tiny to very large. Many species lay a single egg in a nest so flimsy that the egg can be seen from underneath. This may make the nests hard for predators to find. Fruiteaters build more solid cup nests, and the cocks-of-the-rock attach their mud nests to cliffs. The nests may be open cups or little platforms with loosely woven plant material, usually placed in a tree. The clutches comprise one to four eggs. Incubation typically takes 15-28 days. Fledging usually occurs at 28–33 days.

Habitat

Deserts, open woodlands, coastal mangroves, and humid tropical forests comprise their habitats. Cotingas face very serious threats from the loss of their habitats.

Taxonomy and systematics

The family Cotingidae was introduced by French naturalist

Charles Lucien Bonaparte Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857), was a French naturalist and ornithologist. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal Lucien Bonaparte. Life and career ...

in 1849. According to the

International Ornithological Committee The International Ornithologists' Union, formerly known as the International Ornithological Committee, is a group of about 200 international ornithologists, and is responsible for the International Ornithological Congress and other international ...

, as of July 2021, the family contains 66 species divided into 24 genera. A 2014

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study of the cotingas by Jacob Berv and

Richard Prum Richard O. Prum (born 1961) is William Robertson Coe Professor of ornithology, and head curator of vertebrate zoology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University. Life and work Prum describes himself as "an evolutionary ornithol ...

found that the genera formed five

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

clades and they proposed that the family could be divided into five subfamilies. In the above cladogram, the genus ''Tijuca'' is not shown, as it was embedded in ''Lipaugus'', a position that was confirmed by a more detailed 2020 study. The genus ''Perissocephalus'' is also not shown as it was embedded in ''Cephalopterus''. A number of species previously placed in this family are now placed in the family

Tityridae Tityridae is family of suboscine passerine birds found in forest and woodland in the Neotropics. The 45 species in this family were formerly spread over the families Tyrannidae, Pipridae and Cotingidae (''see Taxonomy''). As yet, no widely acce ...

(genera ''

Laniisoma ''Laniisoma'' is a genus of passerine birds in the family Tityridae Tityridae is family of suboscine passerine birds found in forest and woodland in the Neotropics. The 45 species in this family were formerly spread over the families Tyranni ...

'', ''

Laniocera ''Laniocera'' is a genus of passerine birds in the family Tityridae. It has traditionally been placed in the cotinga family, but evidence strongly suggest it is better placed in Tityridae,Iodopleura The purpletufts (''Iodopleura'') are a genus of birds in the family Tityridae. It has traditionally been placed in the cotinga family, but evidence strongly suggest it is better placed in Tityridae,''A classification of the bird species of South America.''
American Ornithologists' Union. Accessed 12 December 2007.

References

External links