Pipridae Manakins
Version: 1.0 — Published March 4, 2020
Introduction
Tiny frugivores of Neotropical forests, these large-headed, short-tailed birds are strikingly dimorphic: females are uniformly plain olive-green, whereas males of most species are black or white with vibrant patches of red, yellow, or blue. This dimorphism evinces highly derived mating displays, with most species displaying in small leks, showing off their sights and sounds alone or in cooperative duets. Many species also emit different non-vocal sounds in display, most produced by clapping their wing feathers together. Manakin nests are tiny to reduce their visibility to predators, and in some species the posture of incubating females is very upright with the tail out of the nest, making them look more like birds that are perched than ones sitting on eggs.
Habitat
Piprids live in forested Neotropical habitats, ranging from lowland tropical rainforest to montane cloud forest.
Diet and Foraging
Manakins feed on a wide variety of small fruits, and some species are obligate frugivores. However, insects and other small arthropods make up a small proportion of the diet of many species. Food is obtained by sallying or gleaning. Manakin leks are often located near abundant sources of food. Nestlings appear to be fed mostly fruit.
Breeding
With few if any exceptions, manakins are polygynous with female-only care. Males of many species perform distinctive displays at leks. In the Long-tailed Manakin Chiroxiphia linearis, a pair of males cooperates in the mating display, where each male alternately jumps and calls to a visiting female; only the dominant male mates with the female. Male Club-winged Manakins Machaeropterus deliciosus have highly modified secondaries in the wing that are rubbed together rapidly to stridulate, producing short ringing tones to impress females. Manakin nests are typically small cups constructed from rootlets, moss, lichens, and other plant materials and suspended from a horizontal fork, usually in low branches. Females typically lay 2 relatively large eggs, 48 hours apart. Females are solely responsible for nest construction, incubation, and feeding the chicks. Incubation takes 16 to 19 days, relatively long for such a small bird, yet nestling periods are shorter, on the order of 13 to 15 days.
Conservation Status
The logging of Neotropical forests is affecting most forest birds in the region, and five piprid species (10%) face conservation concerns (1 NT, 3 VU, 1 CR). The critically endangered Araripe Manakin Antilophia bokermanni, not described until 1998, and the three vulnerable species are all imperiled by the combination of ongoing habitat conversion and very small to tiny ranges and populations.
Systematics History
Pipridae is in the parvorder Tyrannida of the New World suboscine radiation (Sibley & Ahlquist 1990, Tello et al. 2009, Ohlson et al. 2013a, Cracraft 2014). This family has sometimes contained taxa that now clearly belong elsewhere. Schiffornis species, once called thrush-like manakins, are now clearly better placed in Tityridae, while the genera Piprites and Neopipo, at times treated as in Pipridae, are instead in the Tyrannidae (Tello et al. 2009, Ohlson et al. 2013a,b). Sapayoa, once named Broad-billed Manakin, has been found to be very distant from the manakins, and instead forms a monotypic family, Sapayoidae, as the sole New World representative of the Old World suboscine radiation (Irestedt et al. 2006a, Moyle et al. 2006a). Within Tyrannida, Pipridae has always been hard to place. Morphological studies (Prum & Lanyon 1989) suggested that the manakins were closely related to the cotingas, although McKitrick (1985) had suggested that the manakins were more closely related to part of the tyrant flycatcher radiation. Early genetic studies based on DNA-DNA hybridization found Pipridae to be sister to Cotingidae (Sibley & Ahlquist 1990). Recent genetic work has also been unable to completely resolve the position of Pipridae. Chesser (2004) found Pipridae sister to Tityridae, Tello et al. (2009) found it sister to the rest of Tyrannida, Ericson et al. (2006b) found it to be sister to Cotingidae, and most recently, Ohlson et al. (2013a) found it in a polytomy with Cotingidae and the rest of Tyrannida (Barber & Rice 2007). Relationships within Pipridae have recently been clarified by Ohlson et al. (2013b), and the tyrant-manakins (Neopelma and Tyranneutes species), which exhibit little or no sexual dimorphism, form a monophyletic clade sister to all the other manakins.
Conservation Status
Least Concern |
85.5%
|
---|---|
Near Threatened |
1.8%
|
Vulnerable |
3.6%
|
Endangered |
0%
|
Critically Endangered |
1.8%
|
Extinct in the Wild |
0%
|
Extinct |
0%
|
Not Evaluated |
0%
|
Data Deficient |
0%
|
Unknown |
7.3%
|
Data provided by IUCN (2023) Red List. More information