The long-tailed manakin (''Chiroxiphia linearis'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

in the family

Pipridae The manakins are a family, Pipridae, of small suboscine passerine birds. The group contains 55 species distributed through the American tropics. The name is from Middle Dutch "little man" (also the source of the different bird name '' mannikin' ...

native to Central America where it inhabits both wet and dry tropical and subtropical forests. It is a small, plump bird about long. Males have black plumage with a blue back and a red crown, and the two central tail feathers are greatly elongated. Females and juveniles are olive-green with paler underparts. At breeding time, males are involved in a cooperative

lekking A lek is an aggregation of male animals gathered to engage in competitive displays and courtship rituals, known as lekking, to entice visiting females which are surveying prospective partners with which to mate. It can also refer to a space us ...

behaviour with a complex coordinated courtship dance. This is a fairly common species with a wide range, and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the stat ...

has rated its conservation status as being of "

least concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wil ...

Description

Large for a

manakin The manakins are a family, Pipridae, of small suboscine passerine birds. The group contains 55 species distributed through the American tropics. The name is from Middle Dutch "little man" (also the source of the different bird name '' mannikin' ...

, the long-tailed measures about long and weighs . The male is mostly a rich black. This is contrasted by a bright red crown and legs. The back is bright blue. The two central tail feathers are narrow and greatly elongated. The female is olive green, paler below and on the chin and throat. Some females have a small amount of red in the crown. It closely resembles the lance-tailed manakin (''C. lanceolata''), the blue-backed manakin (''C. pareola''), the swallow-tailed manakin (''C. caudata''), and the Yungas manakin (''C. boliviana''), which all have the same red crown and blue back. There is, however, no overlap in range with these four species.

Distribution and habitat

The long-tailed manakin is found in

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, and

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

. Its natural

habitat In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...

s are

subtropical or tropical dry forest The tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest is a habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature and is located at tropical and subtropical latitudes. Though these forests occur in climates that are warm year-round, and may receive ...

subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Description TSMF is generally found in large ...

, and heavily degraded former forest.

Ecology

The manakin species are very interesting in their family life. Long-tailed manakin males form a long-term partnership duo or trio. Together they sing in synchrony and, for any female who is attracted by their singing, perform a complex coordinated courtship dance. If she mates, only the alpha male inseminates her. Among many displaying male partnerships in a locality (a dispersed lek), only one or a very few males may account for the vast majority of matings in a given breeding season. As in other lekking species, the female then builds the nest and raises the young without involvement by males.

Status

This bird has a very wide range, is fairly common and is presumed to have a large total population. The population trend is thought to be stable and the

has rated the bird's conservation status as being of "

References

External links

BBC article and video of males cooperating in courtship

Long-tailed manakin profile at Animal Diversity Web
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{{Taxonbar, from=Q942728

long-tailed manakin The long-tailed manakin (''Chiroxiphia linearis'') is a species of bird in the family Pipridae native to Central America where it inhabits both wet and dry tropical and subtropical forests. It is a small, plump bird about long. Males have black ...

Birds of Mexico Birds of Guatemala Birds of El Salvador Birds of Nicaragua Birds of Costa Rica

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot