Turquoise Cotinga Cotinga ridgwayi Scientific name definitions

The Turquoise Cotinga is a spectacularly colored songbird of Costa Rica and western Panama.  It occurs in humid forest canopy, primarily in the lowlands in Costa Rica but up to 1600 meters in Panama.  Males are a fantastic metallic blue overall with a purple throat and lower belly and primarily blackish wings and tail, while females are dusky above and buffy below with black spotting below and white spotting on the head.  The species is considered to be vulnerable by the IUCN Red List due to the threat of deforestation within its range, especially in Panama.

17–18·5 cm; male 51·5–54g, female 63·2–65·7 g. Male is mostly deep turquoise-blue  , feathers with concealed black bases; wings black with very narrow blue edges, edges broader on tertials and greater wing-coverts; median and lesser coverts similar to back; primaries P9 and P10 thin and short, P9 especially so, somewhat incurved at tip, and P8 and P9 with outer webs sinuated near base; tail (partly concealed by long uppertail-coverts) black; large purple patch on throat  , larger one on breast and upper belly; iris dark brown; upper mandible black with greyish base, lower mandible grey with blacker tip; legs dark grey or blackish. Differs from C. amabilis  in somewhat smaller size, shorter uppertail-coverts (no more than two-thirds length of tail), from C. nattererii in bill proportions, absence of black eyering, less blackish throat patch, from both in structure of primaries. Female  is markedly larger than male, dark brown with buffish-white fringes above, wings and tail dusky brown, median and lesser wing-coverts like back, edges of greater coverts and tertials more cinnamon; underparts pale buff with greyish-brown spotting, undertail coverts plain buff. Immature is like adult female, flight-feathers with buff tips (tend to wear off); male much as adult when just over a year old.

Pacific slope of Costa Rica (S from Gulf of Nicoya) and extreme W Panama (W Chiriquí).

Generally silent; female distress call a raucous shriek. Flying male makes soft twittering  wing noise.

VULNERABLE. Restricted-range species: present in South Central American Pacific Slope EBA. Generally rare and local, and has very small range in a narrow belt of humid forest. Population estimated to be 2500–10,000 individuals BirdLife International (2015) Species factsheet: Cotinga ridgwayi. Downloaded from http://www.birdlife.org on 24/09/2015. . Recent records from only a few sites in Costa Rica, i.e. Las Cruces and Las Alturas Biological Stations (1 Sánchez, C., Ruiz-Gutiérrez, V. and Martínez-A, D. (2007). Description of male vocalizations of the Turquoise Cotinga (Cotinga ridgwayi). Wilson Journal of Ornithology. 119(3): 455-458. Close , 2 Kirwan, G. M., and G. Green (2011). Cotingas and Manakins. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ), Carara National Park (IUCN Cat. II; 53 km²), the Osa Peninsula (including Corcovado National Park [IUCN Cat. II; 418 km²]), and the E foothills; in Panama, found recently only in Santa Clara area (W of Volcán) and at El Chorogo. Extensive destruction of forest has severely reduced its numbers and range in Panama, and remaining habitat in Costa Rica is inadequately protected.