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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing cocks of the rock. These birds get their name because they spend a lot of their time living among rocks, well, at least the females do. There are two living cock of the rock species and these birds range across the Andes as well as northern South America. They live in humid forests at high elevations, upwards of nearly 8,000 feet (2,440 m) above sea level. Cocks of the rock spend their time on or near the forest floor, taking meals of fruits, insects, small reptiles and amphibians, and even snails from perches and while flying through the air.

The birds are non-migratory and spend most of their time in separate sex groupings. Males gather in groups of up to 50 members along the forest edge where the trees meet rocky cliffs. Females build their nests in small colonies along these cliffs keeping them shaded and moist. A female's nest is made of mud, saliva, and plant parts. She'll rest here with or without eggs and chicks to tend to and often returns to the same nest year after year continuing to add to it each season. Males clear out patches of forest floor and put on displays to attract the females' attention. The most colorful and rowdy males get the most mates. They'll perform for the ladies in all but the hottest months of the year, trying to win the affections of as many females as possible. It's often the males situated towards the center of the display that get the most females.

Young, inexperienced males are often pushed out to the outer edges of the display area as the males squabble over the best locations to show off their stuff. The dirt where they display is free of debris to make their colors stand out as striking as possible. Male cocks of the rock are bright orange while females are brown. Both sexes have a crest that starts at the base of their bill and swoops back to the back of their head, however, this is far less obvious in females than it is in males. These birds are described as "jay-sized" reaching about a foot (30 cm) in length.

Once a female has picked her favorite male, she'll drop down and try to grab his attention. Sometimes the guys can get so caught up in their displays they forget to mate altogether! The pair flies off to a secluded area to quickly mate and then part ways. A secluded spot makes their pairing less obvious and less likely to be disturbed by other birds, both males and females alike. The female takes sole responsibility of the two eggs she lays in her moist mud nest. Cock of the rock eggs take about 25 days to incubate and it's believed the chicks spend about 40 days in the nest before they're ready to leave. When they do leave, young males already sport some orange feathers and join the other displaying bachelors.

Supposedly cocks of the rock live about 7 years in captivity, but estimates put their lifespan in the wild as potentially longer as they can face a lot of stress when kept in human care. In the wild, these birds face predation from hawks, falcons, and eagles. They're important indicator species as their presence typically means the surrounding environment is healthy. Not only do cocks of the rock help alleviate insect populations in an area, they're seed dispersers of native plants!

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