All species › Passerines › Manakins › Yellow-crested Manakin
Yellow-crested Manakin | Heterocercus flavivertex
Geelkruinmanakin | Saltarín crestiamarillo | Dançarino-de-crista-amarela
The Yellow-crested Manakin is a large manakin of blackwater rivers and flooded forest in the upper Orinoco and Rio Negro drainages. In the guide area it occurs only in eastern Colombia. The male has a yellow crown stripe that is usually concealed.
Voice
A high, thin, slightly descending whistle and sharp, repeated chip notes.
Recording: GABRIEL LEITE — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · xeno-canto
Identification
14 cm, with a fairly long tail. The male is olive-green above, with a greyish head, a white throat with silky, slightly elongated feathers at the sides and a warm brown breast that becomes buffy towards the belly. On the crown a yellow, usually concealed stripe. The female has no crown stripe and a duller breast.
Confusion species
Orange-crested Manakin Heterocercus aurantiivertex has an orange crown stripe and lives farther west, in Ecuador and Peru. Flame-crested Manakin Heterocercus linteatus has a red crown stripe and a blacker head and lives south of the Amazon. Black Manakin Xenopipo atronitens of white-sand forest is smaller; the male is entirely black.
Habitat
Igapó, blackwater forest and scrub along the banks of blackwater rivers, also white-sand forest close to water, below about 300 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 Colombia in the east, in the Orinoco and Rio Negro drainages, in Vichada, Guainía and Vaupés. Absent from Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the Galápagos. Outside the guide area in southern Venezuela and north-western Brazil, along the Rio Negro and its tributaries.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
Along the banks of blackwater rivers around Inírida in Guainía. Search from a boat along the forested bank, in the lower and middle storeys.
Conservation status
Least Concern. The blackwater forest in its range is still largely intact.
Scientific name
Heterocercus flavivertex | Pelzeln, 1868
Pelzeln described the species in 1868 and placed it straight away in the genus where it still stands. The genus Heterocercus was introduced in 1862 by Sclater. The genus name comes from Greek heteros, 'different', and kerkos, 'tail'. The specific name comes from Latin flavus, 'yellow', and vertex, 'crown', after the yellow crown patch. The specimen the first description was based on came from Marabitanas, Rio Negro, Brazil.