Creature Feature #114: Cock-of-the-Rock

Another of the extensive Cotinga Family, the Cock-of-the-Rock is perhaps the most magnificant of the flock. He is the National Bird of Peru. It is the male who is the gaudy and flamboyant, the female is a rather more dowdy brown with patches of orange. Like the rest of his Family, the CotR cocks gather in communal "Leks", to perform for the attentions of the female. He raises his disc-shaped crest - his beak all but vanishing - and faces off against another male, flapping his wings, bowing, jumping and squawking, or grunting, raucously. After he has mated with the hens, his part in the breeding cycle is finished. The female builds her nest from mud, vegetable matter and saliva. In this compact cup, she lays two white eggs, which hatch after 28 days.