Comments on: The Dance of the Manakin

The Dance of the Manakin

monju_bosatsu — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 16:38:25 -0800

Manakins (Manacus sp.) are small, colorful sparrow-sized birds found all over Central and South America. Manakin males engage in elaborate courtship dances, including rhythmic sounds they produce with their wings. No one really knew how the birds made this sounds, until Kimberly Bostwick, Curator of Birds and Mammals at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates, went into the jungles of Ecuador to film the birds at 1000 frames per second. As it turns out, different species of manakin use entirely different motion to produce the sounds. The Journal of Experimental Biology has published the results, complete with videos. Mark Barres, who studies avian genetic population structures at the Univ. of Wisconsin, has also filmed the mating dance of the Manakins [.mov].

By: senor biggles

senor biggles — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 17:38:09 -0800

Lovely post. Science is so cool. Thanks!

By: monju_bosatsu

monju_bosatsu — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 18:02:12 -0800

Also, listen to the long-tailed manakin's calls, from Santa Rosa National Park in Costa Rica, and a story from the CBC's Quirks & Quarks about the manakin mating rituals.

By: derangedlarid

derangedlarid — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 21:01:03 -0800

thanks in advance

By: halonine

halonine — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 21:41:21 -0800

I just saw Ms. Bostwick on an episode of Nature. It's part of the Deep Jungle series... link here. There's a writeup on her segment here, which includes more video. What a coincidence! In the show, she demonstrated the dance herself. It was great.

By: moonbird

moonbird — Fri, 29 Apr 2005 22:59:28 -0800

this is a fantastic post, and flagged as such. thanks.

By: dhruva

dhruva — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 06:35:32 -0800

Thanks for the post, all the guys in the lab (animal behav lab) were thrilled to bits.

By: biscotti

biscotti — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 07:32:09 -0800

Very cool. I love this sort of thing, thank you. Great post.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 12:33:47 -0800

Nature is so cool. Fabulous post - thank you monju_bosatsu!