From Opus

Pharomachrus mocinno

photo of Male by Kite
Costa Rica, March, 2011

[edit] Identification

36 cm.
Male:

• Green body, with green-gold to blue-violet iridescence
• Red breast
• Green upper tail coverts
• Helmet-like crest
• Yellow beak
  

Female: black bill. She additionally has red limited to the vent area, the breast is grayish-brown. Her tail shows uneven spacing of black barring on the underside, his is pure white.
The juvenile male can easily be mistaken for a female; look for developing red plumage on the breast to distinguish it.

[edit] Distribution

Southern Mexico to western Panama, Nicaragua, where it is the national bird, and Costa Rica.

[edit] Taxonomy

[edit] Subspecies

There are two subspecies^[1]:

• P. m. mocinno:

• Montane forests of southern Mexico to northern Nicaragua

• P. m. costaricensis:

• Montane forests of Costa Rica to western Panama

[edit] Habitat

Montane forests.

Male
Photo by Greg Lavaty
Monteverde, Costa Rica, January 2009

[edit] Behaviour

[edit] Diet

The diet includes fruit (especially avocados) and insects (wasps, ants, and larvae), and frogs. Some of these can be seen in the image of a female. These birds sometimes hover while they take the fruit.

[edit] Breeding

The nest is placed in a hole, excavated in a rotten tree. The 2 pale blue eggs are incubated by both parents for 18 days (the male during the day; the female at night). Both adults care for the young, which are fed on fruit, berries, insects, lizards, and small frogs. The female may depart before the young are fully fledged.

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2010. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2010. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/Clements%206.5.xls/view
2. Wikipedia

• List of references

[edit] External Links