Kinglet Manakin Machaeropterus regulus Scientific name definitions

The Kinglet Manakin, or Eastern Striped Manakin, is confined to the Atlantic Forest lowlands, including restinga woodland, of eastern Brazil, between Bahia in the north and central Rio de Janeiro in the south, a region that has suffered near-catastrophic levels of deforestation over the course of the last two centuries in particular. Nowadays, the species is most easily found in the variety of reserves and otherwise protected areas that hopefully secure a reasonable percentage of its remaining habitat; mostly found below 200 m, it locally ascends in the foothills as high as c. 600 m. It was formerly treated as conspecific with the Striolated Manakin (Machaeropterus striolatus) of northern and western South America. The male is rather easily identified by its bright red cap and relatively clean whitish underparts streaked neatly with reddish, while the female lacks the red crown patch but its much finer red streaking below should still secure an identification with minimal difficulties, as no other Pipridae in range shows such an underparts pattern; both sexes are largely uniform olive-green above, with a very short tail. Nevertheless, this is a decidedly unobtrusive species, until its voice is learnt, and is perhaps most easily seen by sitting and waiting at a fruiting tree being visited by other smaller manakins. The biology of M. regulus remains largely unstudied, with, for example, its nest being undescribed, although the structure is unlikely to differ much from that of Striolated Manakin, or indeed those of many other piprid species. Even the species’ displays are very poorly known in comparison to its former conspecific. Kinglet Manakin seems to have formerly occurred within the city limits of Rio de Janeiro, but there are no modern records therein.