View source

[[image: bbmanakins.jpg]]

'''Common Name:''' Blue-backed Manakin<br>
'''Scientific Name:''' Chiroxiphia pareola

'''Size:''' 4¾ -5 inches (13 cm)

'''Habitat:''' South America; southern Colombia, eastern Venezuela, the Guyanas, Brazil in the northeast and the Amazon Basin, and in Tobago. A disjunct population exists on the coastal strip of southeast Brazil, about 3000 km long. The Blue-backed Manakin is absent in the northwest Amazon Basin, a region from central Venezuela to the southern border of Colombia. Common in dry and moist deciduous forests, but not the rainforest. 

'''Status:''' Least Concern. '''Global population:''' Unknown. Widespread and common throughout its range.

'''Diet:''' Fruit nectar and some insects.

'''Nesting:''' The male is mainly black with a bright blue back, and pale orange legs. The crown is typically red, but yellow in C. pareola regina from the south-west Amazon. The female has olive-green upperparts, and somewhat paler olive underparts. Young males are olive, but show a red cap and the start of a blue back as they mature.
 
The female builds a twig nest in a tree; two brown-mottled white eggs are laid, and incubated entirely by the female for about 20 days.

'''Cool Facts:''' The male Blue-backed Manakin has a fascinating breeding display, unusual in that it is a cooperative display rather than competitive. Two males perch next to each other on a bare stick and jump up and down alternately, giving a buzzing call. When a female approaches, the perched bird moves backwards under the jumping bird, so the two perform a vertical circling movement. Groups of up to eight birds may perform together, with a different stick for each pair of displaying males.

Apart from the buzzing display song, Blue-backed Manakin has a number of other calls, including a whee-whee-CHUP, sometimes given by two male in synchrony.


'''Found in [http://hivewire3d.com/songbird-remix-amazon.html Songbird Remix Amazon]'''