Bird Guide

Plum-throated Cotinga vs Spangled Cotinga

Plum-throated Cotinga (Cotinga maynana)

Plum-throated Cotinga

Cotinga maynana

Medium69 gForest

The plum-throated cotinga is 19 to 20.5 cm (7.5 to 8.1 in) long and weighs about 70 g (2.5 oz). The sexes are dramatically dimorphic. Adult males are mostly shiny turquoise-blue. Their throat has the eponymous plum-purple patch. Their remiges are black with a large white patch on the underside and wide blue edges toward the end; the wings appear mostly blue when folded. Their rectrices are blackish with wide blue edges and like the wings, the tail appears blue when folded. Their underparts have scattered purple patches and blackish undertail coverts.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: Zinnia Xu · CC0
Spangled Cotinga (Cotinga cayana)

Spangled Cotinga

Cotinga cayana

Medium62 gForest

The species is sexually dimorphic with the male being a bright turquoise-blue with a large deep wine-red throat and black to the wings, tail and back. The female is overall dull brownish-gray with darker wings and faint mottling below.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: gailhampshire from Cradley, Malvern, U.K · CC BY 2.0

Where you might meet both

Learn this pair in the BeakBrain App

Photo and call practice. Coming soon to iPhone and Android.

Play today's Daily Bird

Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Plum-throated Cotinga and Spangled Cotinga.