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Orange-collared Manakin | Manacus aurantiacus
Oranjekraagmanakin | Saltarín cuellinaranja
The Orange-collared Manakin is a small, compact manakin of the Pacific slope of southern Costa Rica and western Panama. The male has an orange throat and collar set against a black crown and back. Males display in small groups on the forest floor and produce loud snaps with their wings. The species occurs only in the guide area.
Voice
A clear chee-poo and short, sharp calls. At the display ground the mechanical sounds dominate: loud, cracking wing snaps like firecrackers and a whirring rattle of the wings.
Recording: Asociación Ambiental Finca Cántaros — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · converted to mono · xeno-canto
Identification
10 cm. Male: crown, back and wings black; throat, cheeks and a broad collar around the neck bright orange, with long throat feathers puffed out as a beard during display. Rump and belly olive-green, the belly yellowish. Legs bright orange. Female and young olive-green, slightly yellower below, also with orange legs.
Confusion species
Golden-collared Manakin Manacus vitellinus (Panama) has a golden-yellow rather than orange collar and throat; where the two species meet, in western Panama, intermediate birds occur. White-collared Manakin Manacus candei (Caribbean slope) has a white collar and throat. Females of the three species are barely separable in the field; range is then the best clue. Females of other manakins lack orange legs.
Habitat
Edges and clearings of humid lowland and foothill forest, secondary forest, dense scrub and thickets along streams, mostly below 1000 m. It eats mainly small fruits and some insects. Males keep small patches of forest floor cleared, where they jump back and forth between thin saplings.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of Mexico and Central America.
Range and movements
Pacific slope of southern Costa Rica, from the Carara area south over the Osa Peninsula, and western Panama in Chiriquí, Veraguas and the western Azuero Peninsula. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Common in Carara National Park and on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. The wing snaps give away display grounds in dense undergrowth along forest trails.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Locally common and tolerant of secondary growth; its small range does make it vulnerable to deforestation.
Scientific name
Manacus aurantiacus | (Salvin, 1870)
Salvin described the species in 1870 as Chiromachaeris aurantiaca; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Manacus was introduced in 1760 by Brisson. Manacus was Latinised by Brisson from the Dutch 'manakin' (from 'manneken', little man), the name these birds bore in Surinam. aurantiacus is Modern Latin for 'orange', after the male's orange throat and collar. The specimen the first description was based on came from Chiriquí, Panama.