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 lives high in the canopy. It is mostly a solitary bird, but may sometimes be seen in groups on a fruiting tree; the diet consists of fruit, plucked while hovering briefly. The male often sits in a stationary position on a high perch on an emergent tree, under which conditions his brilliant blue colour may be indiscernible while he is silhouetted against the sky. This bird does not seem to have a song or call, but the male may, while in flight, make a whirring or rattling sound with his wings, perhaps a form of display. C. nattererii has a very wide range and is described as fairly common. For these reasons, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of «least concern».