All species › Passerines › Manakins › Flame-crested Manakin
Flame-crested Manakin | Heterocercus linteatus
Vlamkruinmanakin | Saltarín crestirrojo | Coroa-de-fogo
The Flame-crested Manakin is a large manakin of flooded and riverside forest in the Amazon basin south of the Amazon. The male has a dark head with a red crown stripe and a pure white throat. In the guide area it lives in the lowlands of eastern Peru and northern Bolivia.
Voice
A high, thin, slightly descending whistle and sharp chip notes, from a perch in the middle storey.
Recording: Bobby Wilcox — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
14 cm, with a fairly long tail. The male has a blackish head with a red, usually concealed crown stripe, a white throat with silky, elongated feathers at the sides, a dark chestnut breast, a paler, olive-brown belly and olive-green upperparts. The female is olive-green above, with a grey head, a whitish throat and a paler brown breast, without a crown stripe.
Confusion species
Orange-crested Manakin Heterocercus aurantiivertex has a grey rather than blackish head, an orange crown stripe and a paler breast; it lives farther north. Yellow-crested Manakin Heterocercus flavivertex has a yellow crown stripe and lives north of the Amazon. Varzea Schiffornis Schiffornis major is plain rusty brown, without a white throat.
Habitat
Várzea, igapó, riverside forest and scrub along rivers and lakes in the lowlands, below about 400 m. It lives in the lower and middle storeys and eats fruit and insects.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Peru in the eastern lowlands, south of the Amazon. In Bolivia in the north, in Pando and Beni. Absent from Colombia, Ecuador and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in the Amazon basin of Brazil south of the Amazon.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In flooded forest along lakes and streams in the lowlands of eastern Peru and northern Bolivia. Search from a canoe along the bank; the bird often sits still for long periods in the middle storey.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Flooded forest along rivers is under local pressure from logging and clearance.
Scientific name
Heterocercus linteatus | (Strickland, 1850)
Strickland described the species in 1850 as Elaenia linteata; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Heterocercus was introduced in 1862 by Sclater. The genus name comes from Greek heteros, 'different', and kerkos, 'tail'. The specific name is Latin linteatus, 'clothed in linen', from linteum, 'linen cloth'. The specimen the first description was based on came from Borba, Rio Madeira, Amazonas, Brazil.