White-ruffed Manakin

The white-ruffed manakin is, like its relatives, a compact short-tailed bird with a flat, wide bill, dark legs and striking male plumage. It is typically 10 cm long and weighs ~11 g (9–14 g; males are smaller than females). The adult male is mostly glossy blue-black with a white erectile ruff on the throat and sides of the neck. His wings are modified, with a very short outer primary. Females and birds in their first year of life are olive-green with a greyish throat. In their second year, males molt into a mostly-green plumage but with a black mask and partial white ruff. Only following the breeding season in their third year do they acquire the adult plumage.

It is common in the foothills and middle elevations of Central America, breeding mainly between 400 and 600 m on the Caribbean slope and up to 1500 m on the Pacific slopes. Some populations are partial altitudinal migrants, meaning that some individuals migrate to lower elevations during the wet (non-breeding) season. This is a species of wet forest, mainly restricted to primary forest, but sometimes occupying adjacent clearings and tall secondary growth.

The white-ruffed manakin feeds low in the trees on fruit and some spiders and insects, both plucked from the foliage in flight. Males are highly frugivorous, with over 90% of their diet being fruit. Females increase the proportion of arthropods in their diet during the breeding season. A large proportion of their diet consists of small berries produced by plants in the Melastomataceae. Manakins forage alone or sometime forms loose groups in its breeding areas (particularly bands of young males), but is more solitary in the lowlands, although it may join tanagers and others in mixed-species feeding flocks. Molt occurs on breeding grounds, initiated first in young males as early as July, followed by reproductive-aged (i.e. 4th year or older) males, and then females. At the population-level, it can be relatively protracted, lasting through to October. In altitudinal migrant populations, downhill movements occur during or immediately following heavy, multi-day rainstorms starting as early as July, and continuing through the latter half of the year. Once birds reach lower-elevation non-breeding areas, they remain there until uphill migration in February. Males are more likely to migrate than females.