Listen to the Purple-throated cotinga
Tip: press play to see the sound's live frequency spectrum in blue over the waveform.
About the Purple-throated cotinga
The Purple-throated cotinga is a bird in the family Cotingidae (order Passeriformes). Its conservation status on the IUCN Red List is “least concern”. Adults weigh around 60 g.
What does the Purple-throated cotinga sound like?
Most birds have two kinds of vocalisation: songs, which are learned or innate phrases delivered mainly in spring and summer, and calls – brief contact, alarm and begging notes heard all year round. Listening for both helps with identification.
The recordings here are labelled as call. Listen for differences in rhythm, pitch and repetition – the spectrum display makes it easy to see whether a sound is a pure whistle (a thin line), a harsh call (a broad band) or a trill (rapid repeated marks).
From Wikipedia
The purple-throated cotinga (Porphyrolaema porphyrolaema) is a species of bird in the cotinga family, Cotingidae. It is found in the western Amazon rainforest of South America; its range extends from southern Colombia south through eastern Ecuador and Peru and east through extreme northwestern Bolivia and into western Amazonian Brazil. It lives in the canopy or along the borders of humid forest throughout its range. The purple-throated cotinga is monotypic within the genus Porphyrolaema and has no known subspecies. It is one of the smaller cotinga species and expresses strong sexual dimorphism. Males have black upperparts with a bold white wingstripe and white edges to the tertial feathers and a white belly with some black barring on the rear flanks. The throat is a deep purple, giving the bird both its common and scientific names. Females are dark brown with pale buffy margins on the upperparts, buffy cinnamon with black barring on the underparts, and rufous on the throat. The male has a powerful voice.
More from the family Cotingidae
Andean cock-of-the-rock
Rupicola peruvianus
Guianan cock-of-the-rock
Rupicola rupicola
Amazonian umbrellabird
Cephalopterus ornatus
Screaming piha
Lipaugus vociferans
Red-crested cotinga
Ampelion rubrocristatus
Capuchinbird
Perissocephalus tricolor
Scaled fruiteater
Ampelioides tschudii
Long-wattled umbrellabird
Cephalopterus penduliger
Rufous piha
Lipaugus unirufus
Black-necked red cotinga
Phoenicircus nigricollis
Orange-breasted fruiteater
Pipreola jucunda
Dusky piha
Lipaugus fuscocinereus
Frequently asked questions
What does a Purple-throated cotinga sound like?
You can hear 1 recording of the Purple-throated cotinga on this page, including its call. Most birds have two kinds of vocalisation: songs, which are learned or innate phrases delivered mainly in spring and summer, and calls – brief contact, alarm and begging notes heard all year round.
Is the Purple-throated cotinga endangered?
The IUCN Red List classifies the Purple-throated cotinga as “least concern”.
What family does the Purple-throated cotinga belong to?
The Purple-throated cotinga (Porphyrolaema porphyrolaema) belongs to the family Cotingidae in the order Passeriformes.
Sources & credits
- Call · Orellana: 'Maxus' road km 40 (30 km… by Niels Krabbe – CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
- Wikidata Q908803 – CC0
- Wikipedia: Purple-throated cotinga – CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo by Hector Bottai – CC BY-SA 4.0