Profile
In flight
Manakins
Wire-tailed Manakin
Pipra filicauda
- epic
- 39 km/h
- Least Concern
Two bare filament tail wires extend beyond the body and tickle the female's chin during courtship. No wire, no date.
- Population
- Global population size not precisely quantified; BirdLife/IUCN describe it as fairly common but patchily distributed, with population trend suspected stable in the absence of evidence for declines or substantial threats
- Habitat
- Gallery forest, secondary forest, and open woodland, especially near watercourses in the lowland Amazon basin; also uses shaded coffee and cacao plantations in parts of Venezuela; sea level up to about 1,000 m elevation
- Fun fact
- Male Wire-tailed Manakins perform coordinated, alternating lek display-flights with other males (only the dominant male ultimately mates), and use their namesake wire-like tail filaments as tactile organs — stroking a watching female during the courtship display.
- Range
- Amazon basin of northern South America: Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil; extent of occurrence approximately 3,360,000 km²
- Diet
- Mainly small fruits, supplemented with insects, taken while perched or during short sallying flights from a perch
- Size
- 0.115 m
- Lifespan
- 12 years
