Long-tailed Manakin

Long-tailed Manakin

Long-tailed Manakin: Boldly patterned black manakin with red crest and striking blue back. Short squared tail has two unique 6-inch-long central tail feathers. Female uniformly olive-green with slightly paler underparts and two somewhat elongated tail feathers that barely extend beyond the tip of the tail. Juvenile male takes 4 years to develop adult plumage, starting with red crown and dusky head, then developing elaborate tail and blue back.

● Song: "toe-lee-doe"

● Foraging & Feeding: Long-tailed Manakin: Moves discretely through foliage, making short sallies to grab small fruit.

● Breeding & nesting: Long-tailed Manakin: Has an elaborate and complex courtship ritual in which pairs of males call in a duet to attract females, then in a female's presence they cooperate to dance together with fluttering "butterfly" flights, hops and cartwheels that increase in intensity as the ritual builds to a crescendo. Only the dominant male gets to breed in this system while the secondary male is an apprentice. The female builds a shallow nest over a dry streambed up to 7 feet high in April to July and lays 2 tan eggs. Incubation is about 21 days and the young remain in the nest just over 2 weeks.

● Similar species: Long-tailed Manakin: The male Lance-tailed Manakin is virtually identical except that it has a green gloss to its black feathers and the elongated tail feathers are only 1/2-inch-long. Eight other manakin species have females that are extremely difficult to separate, but the female Long-tailed Manakin has distinctive 1-inch-long central tail feathers.

Flight Pattern