Bird Guide

Blue-backed Manakin vs Long-tailed Manakin

Blue-backed Manakin (Chiroxiphia pareola)

Blue-backed Manakin

Chiroxiphia pareola

Small17 gForest

Like other manakins, the blue-backed manakin is a compact, brightly coloured forest bird, typically 13 cm long and weighing 19 g. 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 race endemic to Tobago, C. p. atlantica is larger and has more extensive red on the crown and blue on the back.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Sonogram of the Blue-backed Manakin
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Call, calls · Pastaza: Churunalpi, 5 km N Canelos, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Christoph Moning · CC BY 4.0
Long-tailed Manakin (Chiroxiphia linearis)

Long-tailed Manakin

Chiroxiphia linearis

Small17 gWoodland

Large for a manakin, the long-tailed measures about 10 cm (3.9 in) long and weighs 18 g (0.63 oz). The male is mostly a rich black. This is contrasted by a bright red crown and legs. The back is bright blue. The two central tail feathers are narrow and greatly elongated. The female is olive green, paler below and on the chin and throat. Some females have a small amount of red in the crown. It closely resembles the lance-tailed manakin (C. lanceolata), the blue-backed manakin (C. pareola), the swallow-tailed manakin (C. caudata), and the Yungas manakin (C.

ID text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Photo: [Photographs by: M. Dal Zotto (A, B, D) and G. Romeo (C)] Dal Zotto M, Romeo G, Mena Aguilar LA, Sonetti D, Pederzoli A (2017) The avian community of the Karen Mogensen Reserve, a wealth of biodiversity within the poorly investigated and threatened environments of northwestern Costa Rica. ZooKeys 722: 101-135. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.722.14606 · CC BY 4.0

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Photos and recordings are credited to their authors under the licence shown. Full profiles: Blue-backed Manakin and Long-tailed Manakin.