The Andean cock-of-the-rock exhibits marked sexual dimorphism; the male has a large disk-like crest and scarlet or brilliant orange plumage, while the female is significantly darker and browner.

After mating, the female makes a nest under a rocky overhang, incubates the eggs, and rears the young by herself.

The Andean cock-of-the-rock eats a diet of fruit, supplemented by insect, amphibian, reptile, and smaller mice.

Depending on sex and subspecies there are significant variations in the color of the iris, ranging from red over orange and yellow to bluish-white in the male, and whitish over reddish to brown in the female.

[7] In addition to the display calls described in the breeding section below, foraging birds give a loud querulous "tank?"

It lives in a large range of about 260,000 km2 (100,000 sq mi) across Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia,[1] mostly in ravines and forested streams in montane areas at 500 to 2,400 m (1,600 to 7,900 ft) elevation.

It typically stays in the lower and middle forest levels but will range higher in fruiting trees and will sometimes enter and cross clearings.

These displays take place in communal leks, where males gather to challenge rivals and beckon the females.

This consists of facing each other while bowing, jumping, and flapping their wings, sometimes even snapping their bills, and at the same time giving off various squawking and grunting calls.

The display turns into a cacophony of bright color and a frenzied activity filling the air with very strange sounds.

[14] The nests, built entirely by the female, are mud-plastered to cave entrances or rocky outcrops in forest ravines.

The diversity of these types of seeds has been found to be increased at lek and nests and decreased throughout the surrounding forest.

The animals reported to prey on adult cocks-of-the-rock include hawk-eagles, forest-falcons, hawks, owls, jaguars, mountain lions, ocelots, and the boa constrictor.