White-crowned manakin

The white-crowned manakin was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae and given the binomial name Parus pipra.[2] Linnaeus based his short description on that published by the Dutch collector Albertus Seba in 1735 in his Thesaurus and although Linnaeus specified the location as in Indiis, it is probable that Seba's specimen came from Surinam.[3][4] The specific name pipra is the Ancient Greek word for a small unidentified bird mentioned by Aristotle.[5] The white-crowned manakin was subsequently placed in the genus Pipra. In 1992, the American ornithologist Richard Prum published a study of the syringeal morphology of birds in Pipra. He found that the genus was polyphyletic and proposed that it should be split with the white-crowned manakin placed in the resurrected genus Dixiphia that had originally been introduced by the German ornithologist Ludwig Reichenbach in 1850.[6] Subsequent molecular phylogenetic studies confirmed that Pipra, as traditionally defined, was polyphyletic and most ornithologists followed Prum and placed the white-crowned manakin in Dixiphia.[7][8][9] However, in 2016 Guy Kirwan and colleagues showed that Dixiphia was actually a junior synonym of Arundinicola and erected the genus Pseudopipra as a replacement.[10] There are 13 recognised subspecies.[11]

It is common in mountain foothills, breeding mainly between 800–1600 m, although in northeastern Venezuela it apparently occurs down to sea level.

This is a species of the understory of wet forest and adjacent tall second growth. The nesting behaviour is undescribed, but presumably resembles that of other manakin species in which the female lays two brown-speckled white or grey eggs in a cup nest. In all manakin species, nest-building, incubation for 18–21 days, and care of the young are undertaken by the female alone, since members of this family do not form stable pairs.

Female

The white-crowned manakin is 9–10 cm (3.5–3.9 in) in length. The male of the nominate subspecies has an average weight of 11.0 g (0.39 oz); the female is slightly heavier and on average weighs 12.8 g (0.45 oz).[12] It is a compact short-tailed bird with a stout hooked bill, dark legs, red eyes and striking male plumage.

The adult male is mostly black with a white crown which can be erected as a low crest. His call is a buzzy jeeeeeee, louder and preceded by a popping p-p-p chee when displaying.

The female and young males are olive-green with a grey head and throat, and grey-green or olive underparts. The female of the eastern Andean race coracina is brighter and greener above and below than nominate pipra, but the combination of a grey head and red eyes makes specific identification relatively easy for a female white-crowned manakin of any race.

Like other manakins, this species has a fascinating breeding display at a communal lek, but the leks of this species are much more dispersed than the small cleared areas favoured by most manakins, with 3-4 males just within earshot of each other, and up to 100 m apart. Males fly between horizontal perches 3–12 m high and up to 50 m apart with a swooping flight, or, when a female is present, a slow butterfly-like flutter.

The white-crowned manakin feeds low in the trees on fruit and some insects, both plucked from the foliage in flight.

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 downwards but nevertheless, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated the bird's conservation status as being of "least concern".[1]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dixiphia pipra.

• Hilty, Birds of Venezuela, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
• Stiles and Skutch, A guide to the birds of Costa Rica ISBN 0-8014-9600-4

• Snow, David (1961). "The displays of the manakins Pipra pipra and Tyranneutes virescens". Ibis. 103A: 110–113. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1961.tb02423.x.