Cotinga ridgwayi
Silhouette: Edwin Price · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The turquoise cotinga or Ridgway's cotinga (Cotinga ridgwayi) is a Vulnerable species of bird in the family Cotingidae. It is found in Costa Rica and Panama. The turquoise cotinga is monotypic. It, the lovely cotinga (C. amabilis), and the blue cotinga (C. nattererii) form a superspecies. The plum-throated (C. maynana), purple-breasted (C. cotinga), and banded (C. maculata) cotingas may also be part of that clade.
The turquoise cotinga is 17 to 18.5 cm (6.7 to 7.3 in) long and weighs about 51 to 66 g (1.8 to 2.3 oz). The sexes are dramatically dimorphic. Adult males have deep turquoise-blue upperparts. Their wings are black with thin to moderately wide blue edges on most feathers. Their tail is black; their turquoise-blue uppertail coverts are long and cover much of the tail. Their chin and throat and separately their breast and upper belly are purple. Adult females are larger than males. They have mostly dark brown upperparts with buffish white feather tips that produce a scalloped appearance. Their wings are mostly dusky brown with buffish white scallops on most coverts and cinnamon edges on the tertials. Their tail is dusky brown.... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corcovado National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 2 | Piedras Blancas National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 3 | Marino Ballena National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 4 | Carara National Park | 🇨🇷 Costa Rica | |
| 5 | La Amistad International Park (Panama) | 🇵🇦 Panama |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Turquoise Cotinga sighting in Piedras Blancas National Park on a given day, based on 146 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 169th most-seen of the 344 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June, August and October
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Turquoise Cotinga in Piedras Blancas National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April–May and November–February, the lowest months. Those are among Piedras Blancas National Park's wettest months, with about 500 mm of rain a month against 55 mm in February.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Turquoise Cotinga sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 5 parks where we can rate Turquoise Cotinga sightings, Piedras Blancas National Park ranks 2nd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Corcovado National Park (Costa Rica, about 10%).
Same family: Cotingidae
The closest relatives of the Turquoise Cotinga that you can see in Piedras Blancas National Park (family Cotingidae, Cotingas) are Rufous Piha (about 10%), Masked Tityra (about 10%) and Black-crowned Tityra (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Turquoise Cotinga is recorded against all the birds logged in Piedras Blancas National Park (146 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
