Lance-tailed Manakins

About The Male Manakins on Cam

This year’s cam features some very familiar birds. The action centers on PGVm (purple-over-light-green on the left, dark-green-over-metal on the right), an alpha male approaching his 20th birthday this May. He was banded as a nestling in 2006, though he has since lost one of his identifying bands. You can now recognize him by a small patch of missing feathers on the front right side of his red crest, likely the result of a recent scuffle. PGVm has held alpha status at this display site since 2014.

He is both the oldest known lance-tailed manakin and the most famous, having appeared in the Netflix documentary Dancing with the Birds. He was also the focus of this webcam in its first years of operation. Since 2020 his dance perch has been in a hard-to-reach spot for webcam broadcasting, but the intrepid field team has figured out a way to highlight him in his golden years. 

His current beta partner, GSGm (light green-over-striped on the left, light-green-over-metal on the right), is five years younger and has also been followed by the research team since before hatching. He has served as a beta to multiple alphas since 2015 and briefly attempted alpha status himself in 2021 before returning to a beta role.

Working with Wingmen: In lance-tailed manakins, age and experience strongly shape breeding success. Males perform in coordinated pairs, and if a female is successfully courted, the beta typically departs before the alpha mates. Although betas do not reproduce in these interactions, being a beta increases their chances of becoming alpha in the future.

When to Watch: Activity is highest in the morning and early afternoon (Central time), though displays can occur at any time. Follow @ManakinCam on Twitter for updates. Listen for the three-note “Que rico!” duet, signaling that the males are ready to perform. Counterintuitively, many of the most successful displays in this cooperatively displaying bird are performed solo. To spot those, listen for repeated “pip” calls as the alpha flies back and forth across the dance perch, and keep an eye out for the green female who may be watching from the perch itself.

About the DuVal Lab Manakin Research

This project is conducted on a 46 hectare area of secondary growth dry tropical forest at the eastern end of Isla Boca Brava, Chiriquí Province, Panamá. The dry tropical forest ecosystem has a long dry season and is predominated by deciduous trees that leaf out dramatically as the rains start in April and May each year. Lance-tailed Manakins thrive in the thick underbrush that grows beneath the canopy and are abundant on the study site. Lance-tailed manakins are listed as a species of “least concern” by the IUCN. As the pace of development accelerates in Panama, clear-cutting of undergrowth is the primary factor affecting where manakins occur.

The Lance-tailed Manakins on Isla Boca Brava have been monitored by Emily DuVal and colleagues since 1999 as part of a long-term study of cooperation and mate choice. Current research on variability in cooperative decisions is funded by a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (# 1453408). The current project builds on DuVal’s previous work in this population, which was supported by the National Science Foundation; The Florida State University in Tallahassee, FL; The Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany; the University of California at Berkeley, and the National Geographic Society’s Committee for Research and Exploration. Landowner Frank Koehler has kindly granted field site access for the duration of this long-term work.

Courtship And Breeding

Lance-tailed Manakins, like other species in the genus Chiroxiphia, court females using complex multi-male displays. The webcam shows one display perch in the display area of one pair of males. However, these two males also perform displays on two other perches in their display area, albeit less frequently. The monitored region consists of 29 males and their display partners, with display areas of adjacent alphas usually separated by at least 50 meters. This concentration of male display areas is called a “lek,” and females visit the lek to evaluate lots of males prior to choosing whom to breed with.

Male Lance-tailed Manakins form long-term two-male alliances. Partners perch side-by-side in tall trees to sing duet songs. When a female approaches, they perform a dance of coordinated leaps and butterfly-like flights on the display perch. Displays that happen right before copulation are often performed only by the alpha male, but if both males are present the beta male typically leaves the area several minutes before the final stages of courtship and mating. The most eye-catching display is the “backwards leapfrog” in which the two males leap alternately over one another as the female watches at close range. Bouts of leapfrog display often end with a sharp “eek” by the alpha male, and one display can include many bouts of leaping – and eeking.

Female Choice At The Lek

Female Lance-tailed Manakins move widely among display areas in this lek mating system, typically observing displays by 4-6 pairs of males before choosing their mates. After mating, females nest outside of their mate’s display area and raise their young without any male assistance. Though males apparently contribute only sperm to their offspring, mate choice matters: the offspring of more genetically diverse males are more likely to survive.