Black-headed Berryeater Carpornis melanocephala Scientific name definitions

The Black-headed Berryeater is a yellowish-green cotinga with a black hood that occurs in the lowland Atlantic forests of southeastern Brazil. It can be distinguished from the partly sympatric Hooded Berryeater (Carpornis cucullata), the only other species in its genus, by its stockier structure, greener upperparts, and diffuse barring below. It feeds on fruits, apparently relying more on larger fruits and fruits obtained during aerial sallies than the Hooded. The Black-headed Berryeater often is best detected by its whistled call or frenzied feeding movements at fruiting trees. Like many species of the lowland Atlantic forest, it is threatened by extensive habitat destruction.

20·5–21 cm; two males 62·7g and 66 g, 1 female 64 g. Male  has black hood  down to hindneck and lower throat, very thin yellow hindcollar; rather dull olive-green upperparts  , wings and tail; underparts olive-yellow with weak and fine dark olive barring, plainer yellow on lower belly; iris  fiery red or brick-red; bill blackish, plumbeous base of lower mandible; legs grey. Differs from C. cucullata in upperpart colour, barring below, also wider and more dorso-ventrally compressed bill, relatively shorter tail. Female is like male, some olive suffusion on head. Immature resembles female, but black on head less developed, throat and breast duller yellow and more barred.

E Brazil locally in Alagoas (Murici) and from Bahia S along coast to NE Paraná.

Humid forest; occurs up to 500 m, and locally up to c. 700 m, but mostly found below 300m. At one site in Espírito Santo (Linhares), found to favour dense vegetation, with many lianas and spiny palms, on dry sandy soil away from water; occurs also in tall restinga on Comprida I (São Paulo).

Predominantly fruits  ; a single record of a 7-cm stick-insect (Phasmida) being consumed. Fruits  on average of larger size than those taken by C. cucullata; in observations at Intervales (São Paulo), fruits of 14 plant species (of 7 families), mainly those of Myrtaceae, recorded, with average width 14·8 mm (range 9·7–19·6 mm). The possibility that it plucks fruits while in flight more often than does C. cucullata is suggested by different bill shape and its lower wing-loading.

Male territorial call a loud, whistled “tuhweéo”.

No information. Vocal activity and gonad and moult condition of specimens indicate breeding probably in austral summer; moult data suggest more protracted season than that of C. cucullata. A nest in Bahia state had one egg  in Sep; nest, a low cup placed in a tree fork at c. 4 m above the ground, primarily supported by a bromeliad leaf and constructed of dry leaves and stems, resembling a pile of aerial leaf litter; egg pale-horn coloured, greyish on the larger end, with brown small spots and stripes, 32∙2 mm × 23∙5 mm; incubation only by female (1 Belmonte-Lopes,R., Maurício, G.N. and Bornschein, M.R. (2011). Description of the nest and egg of an Atlantic Forest endemic, the Black-headed Berryeater, Carpornis melanocephala (Cotingidae). Wilson Journal of Ornithology. 123(4): 819–822. Close ).

VULNERABLE. Rare to locally uncommon throughout its range (2 Kirwan, G. M., and G. Green (2011). Cotingas and Manakins. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Dependent on lowland forest, which has been extensively destroyed; total population probably low and clearly severely fragmented, and thought to have declined significantly. Currently confined almost exclusively to protected areas; known from 16 in total (2 Kirwan, G. M., and G. Green (2011). Cotingas and Manakins. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Still locally fairly common in a few places, particularly Murici Ecological Reserve, Alagoas (61 km²), Monte Pascoal National Park, Bahia (IUCN Cat. II; 223 km²), Sooretama Biological Reserve, Espírito Santo (IUCN Cat. Ia; 279 km²) and Intervales State Park, São Paulo (IUCN Cat. II; 406 km²). Absent from many other areas (2 Kirwan, G. M., and G. Green (2011). Cotingas and Manakins. Christopher Helm, London, UK. Close ). Widespread clearance of forest remains a continuing problem in region, and harvesting of palmito palms (Euterpe edulis) may also be a threat; uncontrolled fires damage habitat, and forest at one site in Bahia was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1995. Considered Vulnerable at the national level in Brazil (3 Silveira, L. F., and F. C. Straube (2008). Aves. Pp. 378–679 in:. Close , 4 MMA (2014). Lista Nacional Oficial de Espécies da Fauna Ameaçadas de Extinção. Portaria No 444, de 17 de dezembro de 2014. Diário Oficial da União - Seção 1. Nº 245, quinta-feira, 18 de dezembro de 2014. Close ).