The Story
I photographed this White-bearded Manakin (Manacus manacus) at the Kofán Centro Ecoturístico, near Puerto Asís, Putumayo, Colombia, in February 2020. Males display at communal leks, each clearing a patch of forest floor to bare earth and leaping between sticks and the ground with loud wing snaps and a chee-poo call. The female builds a shallow cup nest low in a tree and incubates two eggs alone for about 18 to 19 days. The young are fed mostly regurgitated fruit. IUCN lists it as Least Concern.
I used a Pentax K-1 with the HD Pentax-D FA 150-450mm f/4.5-5.6 for this one, at 1/100 sec, f/5.6, ISO 6400. Puerto Asís is known as the commercial capital of Putumayo and is the only Colombian municipality more populous than its department’s capital.
©2020 Adam Rainoff Photographer
The bird
The White-bearded Manakin (Manacus manacus) belongs to the family Pipridae (Manakins) in the eBird/Clements taxonomy.
Source: eBird.org (opens in a new tab)
Conservation
Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessment published 2024), with the population trend listed as decreasing. Source: IUCN Red List