All species › Passerines › Manakins › Blue-backed Manakin
Blue-backed Manakin | Chiroxiphia pareola
Prachtmanakin | Saltarín dorsiazul
The Blue-backed Manakin occurs in the region only on Tobago, where it is one of the best-known forest birds. The males do not display against each other but together: two or more birds perform a coordinated dance on a bare branch for a female. The Tobago birds belong to the subspecies atlantica, which is larger than mainland birds and has more red on the crown and more blue on the back. It has been proposed as a separate species, but the major checklists do not treat it as such.
Voice
A clear whistled choo-weet and a wee-wee-CHOOP, often given by two males in perfect synchrony. During the dance a nasal, buzzing wrrrr accompanies the jumps.
Recording: Sidnei Dantas — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
12–14 cm, compact, with a short tail. The male is velvet black, with a pale blue back patch and a red crown cap; the legs are orangey. The female is olive-green, paler below and greyish towards the belly, also with orangey legs. Young males are at first green like the female and acquire the red cap and then the blue back over several years; green birds with a red crown are immature males.
Confusion species
No other manakin occurs on Tobago; the adult male resembles no other species there. Females and young males are told from small olive flycatchers and vireos by their compact build, short tail, short bill and orangey legs. Golden-headed Manakin Ceratopipra erythrocephala and White-bearded Manakin Manacus manacus live on Trinidad and do not occur on Tobago.
Habitat
Dry and moist deciduous forest and secondary growth with a dense understorey. It feeds mainly on small fruits and berries, supplemented by insects. The males dance within a fixed display area on a bare branch low above the ground, about 60–80 cm up, taking turns to jump up and flutter over each other. The female alone builds a small cup nest of leaves, rootlets, fibres and spider silk in a low fork of a shrub; the two eggs are incubated for 17–20 days. On Tobago the breeding season starts around March.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
In the region only on Tobago, where it occurs in forest and secondary growth over much of the island; it is absent from Trinidad. Outside the region in north-eastern South America, from eastern Venezuela through the Guianas, and in parts of the Amazon basin and eastern Brazil.
- Resident
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
In forested areas on Tobago, among others along the forest trails of the Main Ridge. A dance site can be located by the synchronised whistles of the males; waiting quietly near such a spot in the morning gives the best chance of seeing the dance.
Conservation status
Not threatened. Common on Tobago. As an island population it is vulnerable to hurricanes, which can severely damage the forest locally.
Scientific name
Chiroxiphia pareola | (Linnaeus, 1766)
Linnaeus described the species in 1766 as [Pipra] pareola; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Chiroxiphia was introduced in 1847 by Cabanis. Chiroxiphia is Greek, from kheir 'hand' and xiphos 'sword', after the narrow, sword-shaped outer primaries of the males. pareola is Modern Latin for 'little tit', a diminutive of Parus 'tit': Edwards had described it as a blue-backed tit. The specimen the first description was based on came from Cayenne, French Guiana.