Handsome Fruiteater

Fairly common but quiet and easily overlooked; a sit-and-wait fruiting-tree bird. Two disjunct populations ~400 km apart (Coastal Cordillera west, and the northeastern Paria/Turimiquire highlands). Reliable at the right elevation but you must work for it.

Stunning sexually dimorphic cotinga (~18 cm). MALE: glossy bluish-black head and throat, bright grass-green nape and upperparts, white-tipped tertials, a deep orange triangular bib on otherwise bright yellow underparts, bright orange bill, paler legs. FEMALE: green to greenish-yellow head, grass-green upperparts, an orange-yellow breast crescent grading to green-and-yellow scaled/barred underparts, duller bill, dark slaty legs. The red/orange bill plus white-tipped tertials separate it from other green cotingas in range.

Lower-to-middle levels of wet, mossy montane and premontane (upper tropical to subtropical) cloud forest.

Resident, frugivorous. Forages singly, in pairs, or small family groups at ~2–10 m, plucking fruit while perched or in brief hovers; occasionally tags onto passing mixed flocks. Sits motionless for long periods — scanning fruiting Melastomataceae and Lauraceae is more productive than walking.

Sings mostly in the morning from mid-level to subcanopy but is 'seldom heard' — a very high, thin, drawn-out 'peeEEEeee'e'e'e'e' that swells then slows on essentially one pitch; also a high thin 'pik' and a rapid 'ti-ti-ti-ti...' rattle. The extreme high pitch is easy to miss for older ears. Search Xeno-canto / Macaulay Library for 'Pipreola formosa' / 'Handsome Fruiteater' and train clients on the thin descending whistle.

Stake out a fruiting tree at first light along the Portachuelo road rather than route-marching. Get clients tuned to the very high thin whistle in advance, then scan mid-story perches — the male's orange bib and bill glow once you lock on. Patience at one good fruiting tree beats covering ground.