Mountain Rooster
29-06-2021
(Rupicola rupicola) – Brazilian States of Amazonas, Pará and Roraima
The Cock-of-the-rock (Rupicola rupicola) lives in rugged forests interspersed with small mountain streams in the far north of Brazil, in the states of Amazonas, Pará and Roraima. It is a large bird, up to 28 cm long with pronounced sexual dimorphism: males have lush orange plumage and a prominent crescent-shaped crest, which covers the beak, while females have only a dark brown plumage with an inconspicuous crest.
The mating ritual is spectacular. At the time of reproduction, the males gather on the ground to court the females in individual arenas, formed of small clearings opened by each of them for an individual show governed by a strict hierarchy of passage, so that several males never show up at the same time. Females make flash appearances, and their presence determines the rate of activity of the males. The male hops in a circle, clockwise, uttering loud calls and showing off the fan of feathers and the filigree of his tail to the attending female. When a female is "impressed" by a male, she quickly descends into the clearing and mating takes place in a fraction of a second. Males, who are polygamous, do not always achieve the claimed success of their efforts.
The female lays one to two white eggs with brown spots. The bowl-shaped nest is made of mud, twigs, fibers and plant resin and is built in the wet crevices of rocky cliffs and cave entrances, preferably located near a stream. The male does not participate in the construction of the nest, nor in the incubation of the eggs, nor in the feeding of the young.
The Cock-of-the-rock's diet is predominantly fruit-based and plays an important role in dispersing the seeds of various forest species, especially around premarital dance and nesting sites. The diet also includes insects and small vertebrates, mainly to feed the offspring.
Among the natural predators of the Cock-of-the-rock are several species of hawks, the jaguar (Panthera onca), the mountain lion (Puma concolor), the ocelot (Leopardus pardalis) and the boa constrictor (Boa constrictor). The Cock-of-the-rock is easy prey for terrestrial and aerial predators when it is on the ground, wooing females or in trees near nests.
The Cock-of-the-rock appears as “low concern” on the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature - IUCN.
Picture: Galo da Serra – (Rupicola rupícola) Junior Girotto - CC BY-SA 4.0 - Wikimedia Commons