Meet Blue Cotinga-A Gorgeous Rare Bird With Bright Blue Plumage (7 Photos)

This extraordinarily beautiful bird of humid tropical forests is found only in eastern Panama and parts of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. Laura saw and photographed two males in Darien Province in Panama. The blue cotinga (in Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Panama) (Cotinga nattererii), is a species of passeriform bird belonging to the Cotinga genus of the Cotingidae family. It is native to Colombia, northwestern Ecuador, eastern and central Panama, and western Venezuela.

The blue cotinga is a plump, dove-like bird with a small head. It grows to a length of about 7 inches (18 cm). The male has glossy blue plumage and a black bib with a purple iridescent sheen on the throat and breast. There is a black ring round the eye, and the wings and tail are black with broad blue margins. On the belly there is a circular patch of purple. The female looks quite different; she is dark brown above, each feather having a pale margin which gives the bird a scaly appearance, and the underparts are pale brown with each feather having a buff margin. The turquoise cotinga (Cotinga ridgwayi) is a similar species with which this bird might be confused, but it has a different range.