Pompadour Cotinga Xipholena punicea Scientific name definitions

The Pompadour Cotinga is one of those birds that makes the Neotropical avifauna one of the gaudiest collections of organisms on the planet. Males are a striking metallic burgundy with bright white wings; females are charcoal gray with a white belly and blackish wings. The species resides in the canopy and edges of lowland humid forest from eastern Colombia, Venezuela, and the Guianas south to central Amazonian Brazil and northeastern Bolivia; there also are isolated populations in eastern Ecuador and northern Peru. This species is much more common in the northern part of the range than it is in western Amazonia. Pompadour Cotinga is mostly silent, but the male engages in ritual chasing that may function as a display.