Species Fact Profile: Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (Rupicola peruvianus)

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock

Rupicola peruvianus (Latham, 1790)

Range: Northwestern South America
Habitat: Cloud Forest
Diet: Fruit, Insects, Small Vertebrates
Social Grouping: Solitary, Breeding Leks
Reproduction: Polygamous.  Males mate with multiple females and do not assist in rearing the young.  Nests are made of mud and vegetation, held together with spit and plastered on caves or on crock outcroppings.  Two white eggs are incubated by the female for 25-28 days.
Lifespan: 7 Years
Conservation Status: IUCN Least Concern, CITES Appendix II

• Body length up to 32 centimeters, weighing up to 300 grams.  Males are larger than females
• Strong sexual dimorphism - the male is bright red or orange while the female is duller brown.  Males also large disk-like crests above their beaks.  The tail and wings are black, the beak yellow in males, dark brown in females
• Breeding males congregate in leks - several males gathered together to competitively display for females.  Displays take pace when the lighting is right to highlight the plumage of the males.  Displays consist of calling, jumping, and flapping wings, but is seldom observed by humans due to the shyness of the birds
• One of two cock-of-the-rock species (the other is the Guianan (Rupicola rupicola), which does not overlap in range), there are four subspecies, varying in coloration
• Latin name translates to "Rock Dweller of Peru" from habit of nesting on rock walls
• Will sometimes follow army ants, seizing small animals that are escaping the ants
• Selected as the national bird of Peru

Zookeeper's Journal: I'll never forget my surprise at seeing my first cock-of-the-rock.  It's not a species that a lot of visitors make it a priority to see, so it wasn't listed on the website of the Bronx Zoo.  It was a complete surprise when I rounded a corner at the Bronx Zoo's World of Birds and saw a magnificent, gleaming flame of a bird eyeing me from a perch.  It was a bird that I'd always wanted to see, but at the time had no idea that any were in the US.  Relatively few zoos display these beauties - and not without reason.  Their lek breeding system requires a special set up to allow females to choose their males - you can't just throw a boy and a girl in an aviary and hope for the best.  Or you can... but that hope won't come to anything.  For a zoo to breed the cock-of-the-rock, there has to be a set-up in place to allow for mate choice.