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Jet Manakin | Chloropipo unicolor
Gitmanakin | Saltarín azabache | Dançarino-azeviche
The Jet Manakin is a small, entirely black manakin of montane forest on the east slope of the Andes. Only when the male raises its wings do the white underwing coverts become visible. The female is dark olive-green and grey.
Voice
A rising, squeaky call, roughly tueee?. Otherwise seldom heard.
Recording: Jonas Nilsson — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
12 cm. The male is entirely black, with white underwing coverts that sometimes show as a white patch at the side of the breast. The female is mostly dark olive-green, with a greyish olive throat and belly. Both sexes have a dark brown iris, a bluish-grey to grey bill and dark olive-grey to pinkish-grey legs.
Confusion species
The male Black Manakin Xenopipo atronitens lacks white under the wing and has a paler, heavier bill, and lives in the lowlands on sandy soils. The female Green Manakin Cryptopipo holochlora is brighter grass-green with a yellowish belly and lives lower. The female Golden-winged Manakin Masius chrysopterus has a yellow throat. Males of Blue-capped Manakin Lepidothrix coronata are much smaller and have a blue crown.
Habitat
The understorey and middle storey of humid montane forest on the east slope of the Andes, roughly between 1450 and 1700 m in Ecuador and between 900 and 2200 m in Peru. It feeds on small fruits and insects. Little is known about its breeding biology.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation units of the Andes and the west coast.
Range and movements
In Ecuador local and patchy on the east slope of the Andes. In Peru continuously on the east slope, from the north to at least Puno. In Bolivia a few records from the north-west, in La Paz. Absent from Colombia and the Galápagos. Does not occur outside the guide area.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Search along forest trails and roads through montane forest at middle elevations on the east slope in Peru. Watch for a small black bird sitting quietly in the understorey and feeding at fruiting shrubs.
Conservation status
Least Concern. Montane forest on the east slope has been cleared locally for farming, but large parts are still intact.
Scientific name
Chloropipo unicolor | Taczanowski, 1884 (GBIF: Xenopipo unicolor)
Taczanowski described the species in 1884 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Chloropipo was introduced in 1860 by Cabanis & Heine. The genus name combines Greek khlōros, 'light green, yellow', with pipōn or piprō, an unknown small bird (compare the genus Pipra). The specific name is Latin unicolor, 'of one colour', after the uniformly black plumage of the male. The specimen the first description was based on came from Amable María, Junín, Peru.