Crimson Fruitcrow Haematoderus militaris Scientific name definitions

Until recently, the Crimson Fruitcrow’s life history was virtually unknown, but its nesting, displays, and feeding behaviour have all been documented to some extent within the last two decades. Nonetheless, the species remains a difficult bird to find over much of its northeast South American range, and this strange, and extraordinarily striking cotinga, might yet have a few secrets to yield. Males are deep glistening crimson over the head, mantle, underparts, and rump, whilst the wings and tail are dusky to dark brown. Females, in contrast, are less intense crimson, more rosy-red, and only so over the head, neck and underparts, with the upperparts being dusky to dark brown (or even brown-black), and this colour may extend to the nape. Long thought to be basically restricted to the Guiana Shield, Crimson Fruitcrow has recently been discovered far south of the Amazon River, albeit as yet only extremely locally.

33–35 cm. Bill strong, hooked at tip, wide basally, rictal bristles well developed, legs relatively short, feet small. Male has feathers of crown, upper back and breast highly modified, narrow and much elongated; shining crimson on head and body, breast darker crimson (feathers up to at least 105 mm long, very glossy towards tips); wings and tail dusky brown; iris dark brown; upper mandible dark reddish, lower mandible pale reddish-brown, darker along sides; legs blackish. Female is rosy crimson on head and underparts, rest of plumage dusky brown. Immature is similar to female.

The Guianas and N & W Brazil (E from E Roraima and Manaus area, and from lower R Tocantins E to Belém area of NE Pará; also Rondônia and N Mato Grosso (1 Lees, A. C., K. J. Zimmer, C. A. Marantz, A. Whittaker, B. J. W. Davis, and B. M. Whitney (2013). Alta Floresta revisited: an updated review of the avifauna of the most intensively surveyed locality in south-central Amazonia. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 133(3):178–239. Close ) ); sight records in extreme SE Colombia (Cerro Caparro) (2 Quevedo, A. and Luna, J.C. (2012). Dos nuevas especies de aves para Colombia en el departamento del Guainía. Conserv. Colombiana 17: 26–27. Close ) and S Venezuela (Cerro de la Neblina).

Male call  a short, low-pitched “bock”.

Not globally threatened. Status not well known. Seems to be generally rare, local concentrations perhaps occurring in some areas at times. Was for long known only from the Guianas (where rare in Guyana (3 Braun, M. J., D. W. Finch, M. B. Robbins, and B. K. Schmidt (2007). A Field Checklist of the Birds of Guyana. 2nd Edition. Publication 121. Biological Diversity of the Guianas Program, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA. Close ) and French Guyana (4 Kirwan, G. M., and G. Green (2011). Cotingas and Manakins. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ) ), and a few localities in lower Amazonian Brazil; range recently greatly extended by records from extreme S Venezuela (5 Willard, D. E., M. S. Foster, G. F. Barrowclough, R. W. Dickerman, P. F. Cannell, S. L. Coats, J. L. Cracraft, and J. P. O’Neill (1991). The birds of Cerro de la Neblina, Territorio Federal Amazonas, Venezuela. Fieldiana Zoology New Series 65:1–80. Close ), neighbouring Colombia (6 Quevedo, A. and Luna, J.C. (2012). Dos nuevas especies de aves para Colombia en el departamento del Guainía. Conservación Colombiana. 17: 26–27. Close ) and SW Amazonian Brazil (Rondônia (7 Stotz, D. F., S. M. Lanyon, T. S. Schulenberg, D. E. Willard, A. T. Peterson, and J. W. Fitzpatrick (1997). An avifaunal survey of two tropical forest localities on the middle Rio Jiparaná, Rondônia, Brazil. In Studies in Neotropical Ornithology Honoring Ted Parker (J. V. Remsen, Editor), Ornithological Monographs 48. pp. 763–781. Close ) ) and Amazonas (8 Whittaker, A. (2009). Pousada Rio Roosevelt: a provisional avifaunal inventory in south-western Amazonian Brazil, with information on life history, new distributional data and comments on taxonomy. Cotinga 31:23–46. Close ) ); these records, far to W and S of previously known range, suggest that it may be more widespread than once supposed (4 Kirwan, G. M., and G. Green (2011). Cotingas and Manakins. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Appears to have declined considerably near Manaus (4 Kirwan, G. M., and G. Green (2011). Cotingas and Manakins. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Not reported in recent years from Belém area of Brazil although it has been found 300 km to the south (9 Lees, A. C., N. G. Moura, A. Santana, A. Aleixo, J. Barlow, E. Berenguer, and T. A. Gardner (2012). Paragominas: a quantitative baseline inventory of an eastern Amazonian avifauna. Revista Brasileira de Ornitologia 20(2):93–118. Close ). Protected by the Central Suriname Nature Reserve (IUCN Cat. II 1998; 16,000 km²).