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Bay-vented Cotinga | Doliornis sclateri
Sclaters cotinga | Cotinga de Sclater | Cotinga-de-crisso-baio
The Bay-vented Cotinga is a dark grey cotinga of the elfin forest at the treeline on the eastern slope of the Andes in Peru. The species occurs only in Peru and is known from a limited number of sites. Pairs often sit still and upright at the top of a small tree at the forest edge.
Voice
Little known; the species is usually silent. A dry, raspy single note and soft twittering between pairs have been described.
Recording: Ross Gallardy — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
21 cm, with a fairly long tail and a short, dark bill. The male has a black crown with a usually hidden rufous crest; the rest of the head and the upperparts are dark brownish grey, the wings and tail blackish. The underparts are grey, with rufous undertail coverts and vent. The female is similar, but has a greyer crown and less rufous on the head. The iris is dark reddish brown.
Confusion species
Red-crested Cotinga Ampelion rubrocristatus is slightly larger, with a whitish bill with a black tip, white streaks on the rump and undertail coverts, and a white band across the underside of the tail. Chestnut-bellied Cotinga Doliornis remseni has an entirely chestnut belly, but lives farther north, in Ecuador and southern Colombia. Great Thrush Turdus fuscater is larger and browner, with an orange bill and orange legs.
Habitat
Elfin forest, scrub and the edge of cloud forest at and just below the treeline, roughly between 2500 and 3600 m, locally near Polylepis woodland and grassland. It feeds on fruit, including mistletoe berries, and also on leaves. Little is known about the nest.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
Only in Peru, locally on the eastern slope of the Andes in the north and centre of the country, from La Libertad and San Martín south to Pasco and Junín; most records come from Huánuco. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Not known outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Bosque Unchog in Huánuco is the best-known site; search there in the early morning along the forest edge at the treeline for birds sitting quietly at the top of a shrub.
Conservation status
Near Threatened. Its treeline habitat is small and fragmented, and is declining through fires, grazing and the cutting of elfin forest.
Scientific name
Doliornis sclateri | Taczanowski, 1874
Taczanowski described the species in 1874 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. He introduced the genus Doliornis in that same work. The genus name comes from Ancient Greek dolios, 'crafty', and ornis, 'bird'. The species name honours Philip Lutley Sclater (1829–1913), a British ornithologist and zoologist who described many South American birds. The specimen the first description was based on came from Maraynioc, Junín, Peru.