Talk:Guianan cock-of-the-rock

Comments

I added some supplemental territory information. It describes specifically what the court looks like and how it's made. I would have originally made a new section, but I just added it to the Range and Habitat section. I used the same reference that was already used (this is reference 4). I added some extra information to the male breeding section that discusses how often males are likely to copulate and why. I also cleaned up a few spelling errors (it's Guianan). DC9001 —Preceding undated comment added 03:31, 27 September 2013 (UTC)

I just added soem more information to the behavior section. I added a few sentences specifying more about the lek behavior. I also added a predation section talking about the main predators of the bird, and also about how they deal with those predators. Hansika.n (talk) 00:25, 27 September 2013 (UTC)

The breeding section is very informative. All I did were inserting a course banner in the talk section, adding some Wikipedia links in text and marking those places where I think precise citations are needed. I also corrected some typos and grammatical mistakes. To further improve the entry, I would suggest uploading more pictures, especially along the body text so that it's more interesting to read. Also it would be wonderful if you can go beyond the scope of our class project and add more non-behavioral information! The description and range and habitat sections seem to be in need of help. --Tianyi Cai (talk) 22:38, 20 November 2012 (UTC)

Hi there, I see you’ve expanded this article significantly. There are a few edits that I made to your wiki article. I concentrated mostly on grammar edits and shifting around the paragraphs. Your paragraph on Breeding is very lengthy, and I noticed some information is repeated, in particular when you describe how a female taps the male(see the second paragraph under “breeding” and the second paragraph in “Male mating behavior”). I moved around your paragraphs into headings for thematic organization. The first two paragraphs summarize the lek and mating interactions, whereas male mating behaviors and disruptive behavior was lumped together. The paragraphs on courtship behavior and selection, predation, and captive breeding are lumped into “ecological consequences.” My main suggestions for the article are to clean up the “citations needed” tags, and to use more summary style. Also, phrases such as “It may be noteworthy” or “It is suggested” are editorial and will be noticed when you nominate the article for Good Article status, so be careful with the wording. GenesBrainsBehaviorNeuroscienceKL (talk) 07:59, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

The article is really good. I just added some links and did some grammatical corrections to make the reading smoother and more coherent. I would suggest going over it again to get rid of more redundant phrasing. I have changed some of them, but as I did not want to alter the voice of the article there are still some phrases that you should look over again. WhitleyTucker (talk) 07:58, 25 November 2012 (UTC)

Gay

This bird features prominently in Gay birds. It would be nice to see some referencee to this in the article. --Timtak (talk) 21:34, 9 April 2015 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Guianan Cock-of-the-rock/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: MeegsC (talk · contribs) 21:36, 5 December 2012 (UTC) I've had the great good fortune to see some of these gorgeous birds up close on a lek in Guyana. I'll be reviewing this article in more detail, but here are some quick initial comments:

• The lead is much too short. It should be an overview of the article. See WP:LEAD for more information.
• The article needs a taxonomy section. What genus does it belong to? What are its closest relatives? (Hint: it's a superspecies.) When was it first described and by whom? What's the etymology of its scientific name? Any subspecies? If so, how are they differentiated? These answers and more belong in that section.
• Three sentences to say the bird eats fruit? Eliminate the redundancy and give us more information. Which fruits? How much do they eat? Same fruits all year, or a changing menu? Are they important seed distributors for any particular species? Do they swallow the fruits whole, or peel off the outside?
• More can surely be said about its conservation status. What threats does it face? Any predators? Any known diseases or parasites? Population increasing or decreasing?
• Other than the behavioral sections, none of the rest of the article is referenced.

I'll do a more thorough review shortly, but these are some issues that need to be resolved before this article can gain GA status. I look forward to working with you to get it there! MeegsC (talk) 21:36, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

A few more comments that apply to the whole article:

• Eliminate all spaces between sentence punctuation and reference numbers, and between reference numbers. For example, "...aggression.[10][11]" not "...aggression. [10] [11]"
• Be sure to use em-dashes rather than dashes in all number ranges. Or use the {{convert}} template (where appropriate) instead, and let the system do all conversions and MOS stuff for you!
• The bird's name should be capitalized consistently throughout the article. It's Guianan Cock-of-the-rock. And incidentally, don't refer to it as "the Guianan Cock-of-the-rock bird".
• Other than in the taxonomy section, don't refer to the bird by its scientific name. Lose all references to Rubicola rubicola.
• If you're using a study's paper as a reference, you don't normally need to namecheck the study's author in the article. Exceptions might occur if one person's study showed something different than everyone else's, or if a study was later discredited, for instance.

Description

• "The Guianan Cock-of-the-rock is a stout-bodied bird with a visible half-moon crest..." As opposed to an invisible half-moon crest?  :)
• The wikilink for filament doesn't seem to link to an appropriate article, since it's about the proteins within a hair. Perhaps describe what the filaments are, instead?
• "Additionally, this species also has an orange bill, legs and skin." Don't need "additionally" and "also"; in fact, do you really need either? And is that true for both male and female, or just the male?
• The rest of the male also needs describing; what about the underside (not visible in the picture) and back, for example? How long before the male gets that amazing plumage: one year? more? What color is the eye, and is that the same for the female? Is the wingspan known? Is there a published description of what the young look like?
• You might mention that the species is sexually dimorphic.
• This entire section needs to be referenced.

Habitat and range

A good start, but it can be expanded:

• Is there a range map we can add to the taxobox?
• Is the species widespread, or patchily distributed? A year-round resident, or a short-distance migrant? Is it restricted to certain elevations? Does it move seasonally to find the fruit it eats? Has the range shrunk since humans arrived in significant numbers? Does it need "good" forest, or can it live in disturbed areas as well?
• The section mentions forest with rocky outcrops; you might briefly mention here that those outcrops are critical as they're used by the females for nesting.
• This section also needs references.

Diet

In addition to the comments above, the section mentions snakes and reptiles as other food items; can you provide any details on size, the percentage of the bird's diet they make up, how they're caught, etc.? Are they any other food items (arthropods, etc.)?

I think I'll break here, until I see some evidence that someone is willing to work on the above suggestions. MeegsC (talk) 19:57, 6 December 2012 (UTC)

There has been no activity on these issues over the past two weeks, so (per the GAN process) I've declined to give it GA status. The bones of a good article are there; hopefully, the original editors (or someone else) will be back to finish it up. MeegsC (talk) 17:03, 21 December 2012 (UTC)

GA Review

This review is transcluded from Talk:Guianan Cock-of-the-rock/GA2. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Sasata (talk · contribs) 17:42, 21 October 2013 (UTC)

I will review this. Comments in a couple of days. Sasata (talk) 17:42, 21 October 2013 (UTC)

Lead

• I suggest moving the mention of its length out of the lead sentence.

Done. Iainstein (talk) 14:05, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

• suggest links: tropical rainforest, display, plumage,

Done. Iainstein (talk) 14:34, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

• "The females are a brownish color," ->"The females are brownish,"

Done if "The females are brownish in color" works. Iainstein (talk) 13:36, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

• "It lives all across the forested region of north-eastern South America." The subject of "It" is unclear, because the previous sentence was talking about the other member of the genus

Corrected. Iainstein (talk) 13:46, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

• "It diet consists" fix

To what? Iainstein (talk) 13:46, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

Done. Iainstein (talk) 14:40, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

• "The Guianan Cock-of-the-rock breeds in the early months of the year and on average, lays their eggs" fix grammar

Done. Iainstein (talk) 13:51, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

• "a complex courting behavior that is done to attract females." fix grammar

Done. I think. Iainstein (talk) 13:51, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

• "Males and females live separately except for the females to chose a mate." awkward

Fixed. Iainstein (talk) 13:46, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

• "Since no successful attempts to breed the Guianan Cock-of-the-rock in captivity have succeeded" no successful attempts have succeeded?

Removed contradictory successful. Iainstein (talk) 14:05, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

• "that the male-male competition is an important in lek formation and breeding" huh?

I think I fixed that. Iainstein (talk) 13:46, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

• "prefers to nest on rocky cliff faces" this information has already been given earlier

removed. Iainstein (talk) 13:46, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

I'm going to stop here, as there are prose problems like the examples I've given throughout the article. I ask that the nominator spend some time and carefully copyedit the text. As it is, the article does not meet criterion 1a. Sasata (talk) 04:17, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

I have gone through the article to the Breeding section. Could you go over it while I finish copyediting the rest? Iainstein (talk) 14:34, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

I have gone through the entire article. Could you list problems that are still there here? Iainstein (talk) 14:40, 27 October 2013 (UTC)

• '"The Guianan Cock-of-the-rock breeds in the early months of the year and, on average, lays their eggs" -> lays its eggs?

 Done

• "except for the time when the females chose a mate"

 Done

• "When the females chose a male by flying down to the ground and pecking the male on his rump." incomplete sentence

 Done

• "It is certainly a very sexually dimorphic bird."

 Done

• I don't think linking species is necessary in the middle of the description section

 Done

• "The males crest is more pronounced than the females" ->"The male's crest is more pronounced than the female's"

 Done

• "After two years, the juvenile males are the reverse," not sure what this means, they reverse their colouring?

 Done

• link plumage earlier

 Done

• "at around three years of age."

 Done

• American English (color) or British English (centimetre)? pick one and be consistent throughout

Both are used in Canadian English (American colour is spelt color)

Both "color" and "metre" are used in the article. Sasata (talk) 17:34, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

 Done

• link Carl Linnaeus, type species, generic, specific name

 Done

• "which expresses its habit of nesting on rock walls, unlike the Andean Cock-of-the-rock. the underlined part could be trimmed as the last clause isn't part of the etymology.

 Done

• "altitude of 300 to 2000 meters." give conversion

 Done

• "In Guianan Cock-of-the-Rock has distinctive territorial markings" fix

 Done

• "Males usually take dominance of an area on the ground in forests, although they sometimes they occupy middle strata." fix

 Done

• how large are the courts they make?

Looking through refs in the article and searching for new refs revealed nothing. Iainstein (talk) 15:02, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

 Done. Iainstein (talk) 14:07, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

• "Quality of courts are known to have some influence on mate choice." what determines court quality?

 Done. Iainstein (talk) 15:48, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

• what are the primary fruits they eat?

Added what I could. Iainstein (talk) 16:18, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

• link liana

 Done

• "Three quarters (75%) of the fruit eaten by the Guianan Cock-of-the-rock at one study site was either black or red colored fruit." was->were=

 Done

• the second paragraph of the diet subsection could be trimmed of the repetitive first sentence and integrated in the previous paragraph

 Done

• "Guianan Cock-of-the-rock breeds around the early months of the year and lays its eggs around March." think this needs a definite article; clumsy repetition of "around"

 Done

• "Small snakes, reptiles, insects and frogs are occasionally also found to be parts of the diet of the Guianan Cock-of-the-rock." awkward, how about replacing "are occasionally also found to be parts of the diet" with "are occasionally found in the diet"

 Done

• "The males do not clean this court, but when they fly the dirt and other debris on the forest floor will be blown around." I cannot fathom why this would be important.

What do you want done?

Explain why this is important (or remove if not). Sasata (talk) 17:34, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

 Done

• "When this occurs, the females tap the males from behind and insemination quickly follows." How the latter part follows from the former, I don't understand.

Ok, I see it this behavior is partially explained in the following subsection, but the organization is somewhat confusing here (there is duplicated material in subsection "Breeding" and "Male mating behavior").

Want me to trim all later mentioned info from Male mating behaviour or Breeding?

There's shouldn't be repeated material, but I'll let you decide how it should best be organized. Sasata (talk) 17:34, 4 November 2013 (UTC)

 Done

• "While lekking, males purposely contrast themselves from the background to attract the females." how is this done?

 Done. Iainstein (talk) 17:24, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

• The second paragraph of "Breeding" is written confusingly. "The hens engaged in a “pool–comparison” tactic, meaning that females chose males of higher rank in courtship." who is male rank determined by the female? How do the females know which males are "lower ranking"?

 Done. Iainstein (talk) 16:55, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

• "Thus, with a smaller frequency of attacks on the smaller group, the smaller group" repetitive

 Done

• "The female lays 1 or 2 eggs" spell out numbers less than 10, per MoS

 Done

• link incubate

 Done

• "However, females will make repairs" unnecessary however

 Done

• section and subsection titles should be lower case

 Done

• link fitness

 Done

• "The Guianan Cock–of–the–rock is on the menu of many species of predators." prose too informal

 Done

• the eagle and falcon predators should be linked

 Done

• "In a study by Nicholas B. West it was found that" this type of information usually isn't necessary for an encyclopedia article and can be trimmed without loss

 Done

I will try to find the info that I haven't found yet and will add it to the article soon. Iainstein (talk) 14:37, 1 November 2013 (UTC)

I have addressed all comments except for those I would like feedback on before fixing. Iainstein (talk) 17:25, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

• The entire description section is sourced to this webpage, but none of the cited information is on this page. Same with the next citation to this page. And the next ....

 Done

The thing is, at the bottom of the webpage is arrows that direct you to different sections. Fixed by making different refs. Iainstein (talk) 02:08, 5 November 2013 (UTC)

• Source: "... and may have gathered information on lek geometry, territory density, and the location of activity centers on the lek." Article: "The court quality is determined by the lek geometry, territory density and location of activity in the center of the lek." Apart from the source being too closely paraphrased, I think the meaning has been altered incorrectly.

 Done I think.

• "The males each have their own court on the forest floor, and this is where they make their courts." ?

 Done

• how about splitting that large lead into two paragraphs?

done

• "The males plumage is bright orange and have" fix grammar

done

• "The Guianan Cock-of-the-rock lives all across the forested region"

done

• "north-eastern South America" don't think this needs to be hyphenated

done

• March is overlinked

done

• "The females chose a male" chose->choose

done

• "male to male competition" needs hyphenation

done

• link iris

done

• "Both sexes of this species also have"

done

• "The one-year-old juvenile males look similar to an adult female, but has" fix grammar

done

• "They have a total length of approximately 30 centimetres" who? The juvenile females?

done

• "However, the two species of cock-of-the-rock are allopatric, and therefore do not meet with one another." However not necessary (there is no contrast)

done

• there's still a problem with American/British English spelling consistency (both color/coloration and colour, for example, also behavior & behaviour, labor, etc.)

done

• the final three sentences of the 1st paragraph of taxonomy and etymology don't belong there (probably better in description)

done

• what work did Linnaeus publish the original description in? Any chance of a citation & link (all of his major works are online)?

I couldn't find anything.

• are there no historical synonyms for the species?

don't think so

• "which expresses its habit" expresses -> express

done

• "The diet of the Guianan Cock-of-the-rock consists mainly of fruits. They are frugivorous." combine sentences (they essentially say the same thing)

done

• link canopy

done

• "either black or red coloured fruit." ->"either black- or red-coloured fruit."

done

• who is Gilliard

done

• "As noted above, the Guianan Cock-of-the-rock is primarily frugivorous in adulthood." This short paragraph should be combined with the previous (similar information is presented) with duplicate information trimmed. The sentence referred to previously does not indicate any cchange in dietary habits with age... is this something that should be mentioned?

done

• "Guianan Cock-of-the-rock breeds around the early months of the year and lays its eggs near or during March." suggest "Guianan Cock-of-the-rocks breed early in the year, and females lay their eggs around March."

done

• mating is an unnecessary link, but mating season might be useful instead

done

• "The males each have their own area on the forest floor, and this is where they make their courts." suggest "The males each have their own area on the forest floor where they make their courts."

done

• There's a lot of short sentences throughout the text, which makes the flow quite staccato. I suggest going through the article again and finding instances where neighboring sentences discussing similar ideas can be joined. Some examples:

got a few.

• "The size of each court is about 1 metre (3.3 ft) in diameter. The next bird is often about 3 metres (9.8 ft) away." -> "The size of each court is about 1 metre (3 ft) in diameter, and the next bird is often about 3 metres (10 ft) away." (note also I reduced the sig figs in the output; these values are approximations)

done

• "The females and males live separately. Only when it is time to mate do females fly over to observe and choose a male." -> "The females and males live separately; only during mating season do females fly over leks to observe and choose a male."

done

• "lower ranking single males" needs a hyphen

done

• "The rankings were determined by where they courts were positioned in the lek, the more central they were the more successful and higher ranking the male was." suggest "The rankings were determined by where the courts were positioned in the lek: courts that were more centrally placed indicated more successful and higher-ranking males."

done

• "towards larger more centrally" comma after larger

done

• "The smaller of the two cocks-of-the-rocks (the other being Andean Cock-of-the-rock)" remove link (already linked previously), capitalize, & trim unnecessary (already explained)

done.

• There is still redundant information in the first two paragraphs of "Male mating behaviour" (repeated in the previous section)

done

• "The males also have a variety"

done

• "Often Guianan Cock–of–the–rock males engage in courtship disruption practices." -> "Males often engage in courtship disruption practices."

done

• "In lower intensity disruptions", "Higher intensity disruptions" needs hyphens

done

• "male Guianan Cock–of–the–rocks usually directed its" -> "males usually directed their"

done

• "uncommon event which had little effect if any at all on" -> "uncommon event that had little, if any, effect on"

done

• "likely because of the fact that older more experienced" -> "probably because older, more experienced"

done

• link sex drive

done

• "Due to the fact that Guianan Cock–of–the–rock forms large leks" -> "Because Guianan Cock–of–the–rocks form large leks"

done

• "Since no attempted breedings Guianan Cock-of-the-rock" missing word

done

• link Cotingidae

done

• incubate linked twice in close succession

done

• "The ideal nesting sites for this species can usually be sought out" -> "The ideal nesting sites for this species are usually located"

done

• "and plant material being deposited into the crevices."

done

• "This bright coloration provides a sexual advantage for the males, increasing their likelihood of successfully mating." Don't all males have the same coloring? How is this an advantage (or rather, over whom is this an advantage?)

done

• "considered by the IUCN to be a Least Concern of its red list of threatened species." -> "considered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature to be of Least Concern." (it's not on a redlist, correct?)

The ref is for the redlist whch has it listed.

• no need for subsections in the small "Conservation" section

done

• "The Guianan Cock–of–the–rock is part of the diet of many species of predators. It also plays a key role in the environment it lives in by dispersing seeds from fruit it ingests." this is info already discussed above

done

• link vocalization

done

• page #for ref 25? Why don't the birds call out when there's a snake?

ref didn't support the info.

Ok, after reviewing the article again, I think it meets the criteria for Good Article. All images are appropriately licensed, the prose is ok, and I've checked enough sources to convince myself that the sources are being represented correctly and paraphrasing is adequate. Thanks for putting up with my slow review! Passing now, cheers. Sasata (talk) 15:47, 19 December 2013 (UTC)

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