Handsome Fruiteater
Pipreola formosa
A rotund, striking bird, medium-sized with green and yellow body and large white wing spots. Male has black head, yellow underparts, and blurred red chest patch; female lacks black head and shows yellowish underparts with green barring. Both sexes short-tailed with orange eyes and small orange bill. Often alone or in pairs, perching quietly in the low to high levels of the forest. Fairly common in humid forests in foothills or at higher elevations. Not as vocal as other fruiteaters. Female distinguished from Golden-breasted Fruiteater primarily by green barring (not streaking) on underparts. Endemic to the Coastal Cordillera of Venezuela.
Identification
The male handsome fruiteater has a black head and throat, and green upper parts, with pale tips to the tertial feathers of the wings. It has a bright orange upper breast and a yellow belly. The female lacks black on head and throat but otherwise has similar green upper parts, including white-tipped tertials. The throat is green above a small patch of yellow. The rest of the underparts are either barred or scaled in green and yellow. The male is distinctive as no other fruiteaters within its range have a similar orange breast. The female can be distinguished from the golden-breasted fruiteater (P. aureopectus) as the female golden-breasted fruiteater does not have a yellow chest patch and has streaked underparts instead of barring seen in the handsome fruiteater.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Pipreola formosa
- Authority
- (Hartlaub, 1849)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Cotingidae
- Genus
- Pipreola
Range and habitat
The handsome fruiteater is native to the mountains of northern Venezuela where its habitat is humid forests at lower and medium elevations, ranging between about 800 and 2,200 m (2,600 and 7,200 ft) above sea level. It occupies two disjunct areas.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The main diet of the handsome fruiteater is small fruits, either eaten while perched, or grabbed in a brief period of hovering flight. It is sometimes seen feeding for a short while in mixed-species flocks. Little is known of its reproductive habits, but it has been observed to be moulting in June and July and has presumably bred before this.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Sulphur-breasted Bushshrike
Chlorophoneus sulfureopectus
A striking gray, yellow, and green bushshrike with a dark eye, an orange chest, and a distinctive yellow forehead and short eyebrow. The juvenile lacks an eyebrow. Singles and pairs occasionally join mixed-species flocks in thornveld and broadleaf woodland, riparian forest, and thickets. The species creeps slowly through the mid-canopy of trees, hunting insects and small vertebrates, and is often first detected by its loud ringing “what-to-tooo-dooo” song and scolding “skeeeeet” calls and clicks. The larger Gray-headed Bushshrike differs from Sulphur-breasted Bushshrike by having a more robust bill, a pale-yellow eye, and no eyebrows.
Papuan Treecreeper
Cormobates placens
A medium-sized creeping bird of montane forest. Mainly a dull, gray-brown color with pale flecks on the flanks, a paler throat. Female has a rufous moustache stripe. The only treecreeper on New Guinea. Climbs up a trunk, then flies down to the base of another trunk. Sometimes followed by a fantail. The only other similar colored birds with this behaviour are the sittellas, which are distinctively smaller and most have a streaked back. Call, a level series of piping notes which increase in volume.
Blue-billed Teal
Spatula hottentota
Small brownish duck with a blue bill, dark cap, and a dark smudge on the pale tan cheek. In flight, look for white, black, and green stripes on the wing. Found on freshwater wetlands, lakes, and rice paddies, at low to moderate elevations. Combination of small size, blue bill, and cheek marking separate it from all other ducks and grebes.
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