Painted Manakin (Machaeropterus eckelberryi)

Identification & Behavior:~9.5 cm (3.7 in). The Painted Manakin has green upperparts with a bright red cap. Most of the underparts are heavily striped. It has a distinctive broken yellow band on the upper breast. The female has green upperparts, no red cap, and a washed version of the male’s streaking on the underparts. Both sexes have pale-yellowish spots on the tertials. It is similar to the Strioloated Manakin. Males can be distinguished by having a yellow breast band (red in Striolated Manakin). Females are indistinguishable in the field.

The Painted Manakin was considered conspecific with the Striolated Manakin. It was assigned species status on the basis of vocal and morphological differences. The ranges of these two manakins come close (approximately 60 km) but are not known to overlap. The range of the Painted Manakin overlaps with that of the Fiery-capped Manakin.

Status: Endemic. The Painted Manakin is uncommon and restricted to the Cordillera Azul and the hills of the upper Rio Mayo valley of San Martin and Loreto, largely above 500 m.

Name in Spanish: Saltarín Pintado.

Sub-species: Painted Manakin (Machaeropterus eckelberryi), (Lane, Daniel F., Andrew W. Kratter, and John P. O’Neill), 2017.

Meaning of Name: Machaeropterus: Gr. makhaira= knife, dagger; and pteros, pteron= winged, wing. eckelberry: In honor of Donald Richard Eckelberry (1921-2001), American bird artist and conservationist.

See more of the Family Pipridae