Talk:Guianan cock-of-the-rock/GA1

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

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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)