The white-ruffed manakin is a passerine bird in the manakin family. It is a resident breeder in the tropical New World from eastern Honduras to northwestern Venezuela. Its typical habitat is wet forest, adjacent clearings and tall secondary growth. It is a small, plump bird about 10 centimetres long. Males have glossy blue-black plumage with a white erectile ruff on the throat. Females and juveniles are olive-green with a grey throat. At breeding time, males are involved in lekking behaviour on.. more
Similar species: Passerines
By Minor Torres
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Uploaded Apr 17, 2019. Captured Sep 28, 2014 12:38.
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Manakins are really cool birds! They are active, colorful, and have elaborate courtship displays that include dancing and making mechanical sounds. They comprise the family Pipridae with approximately 60 species distributed through the American tropics. The common name “manakin” comes from the Middle Dutch “mannekijn”, meaning “little man.” The name is appropriate since they are small birds, but with big personalities.
They are frugivorous (eat mostly fruit). Fruit is plentiful, which means manakins don’t have to work hard to find food. Consequently, females don’t select males based on their ability to provide food. Instead, females evaluate males at leks, which are areas where males perform communal displays during breeding season.
The males make non-vocal, mechanical sounds with their wing and feather movements. The sounds produced are a combination of whirs, pops, clicks, and snaps. All of this noise is merely an accompaniment to the male’s erratic flight and dancing. His performance intensifies until a female is impressed and stimulated enough to enter the lek and mate with the fancy fella of her choice. #JungleDragon #Manakin #Pipridae
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