Saltarín dorsiazul

Identificación

Like other manakins, the blue-backed manakin is a compact, brightly coloured forest bird, typically 13 cm long and weighing 19 g. The male is mainly black with a bright blue back, and pale orange legs. The crown is typically red, but yellow in C. pareola regina from the south-west Amazon.<p>The female has olive-green upperparts, and somewhat paler olive underparts. Young males are olive, but show a red cap and the start of a blue back as they mature.<p>The race endemic to Tobago, C. p. atlantica is larger and has more extensive red on the crown and blue on the back. It has been suggested that it represents a separate species, the Tobago manakin, but no major authorities recognize this today.<p>This species is similar to lance-tailed manakin, Chiroxiphia lanceolata, which breeds further north from northern Venezuela to Costa Rica, but the latter has elongated central tail feathers, and the male has a somewhat brighter blue back.

Taxonomía

Nombre científico

Chiroxiphia pareola

Autoridad

(Linnaeus, 1766)

Orden

Passeriformes

Familia

Pipridae

Género

Chiroxiphia

Distribución y hábitat

It is found in southern Colombia, eastern Venezuela, the Guyanas, northeast Brazil, the Amazon Basin in Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru; and in Tobago. A disjunct population exists on the coastal strip of southeast Brazil, about 3000 km long. The blue-backed manakin is absent in the northwest Amazon Basin, a region from central Venezuela to the southern border of Colombia. This manakin is a fairly common bird of dry and moist deciduous forests, but not rainforest.

Migración

Resident species

Comportamiento

The male blue-backed manakin has a fascinating breeding display, unusual in that it is a cooperative display rather than competitive. Two males perch next to each other on a bare stick and jump up and down alternately, giving a buzzing call. When a female approaches, the perched bird moves backwards under the jumping bird, so the two perform a vertical circling movement. Groups of up to eight birds may perform together, with a different stick for each pair of displaying males. The female builds a twig nest in a tree; two brown-mottled white eggs are laid, and incubated entirely by the female for about 20 days.<p>Apart from the buzzing display song, blue-backed manakin has a number of other calls, including a whee-whee-CHUP, sometimes given by two male in synchrony.<p>These manakins eat fruit and some insects.

Conservación

Tendencia poblacional

stable