English             -              Swallow-tailed Manakin

Portuguese      -              Tangará

Latin                 -               Chiroxiphia caudata

This is a cool wee bird to photograph.  It’s a bird that you will either hear first or spot a sudden movement in the bushes as it likes to dance around to attract a female. I photographed the Swallow-tailed Manakin while walking on the Waterfall trail (green trail) at REGUA. (Reserva Ecológica de Guapiaçu) I really enjoy going bush with the camera and photographing what’s there. The only downfall is that in most cases you are dealing with low light so you are working with slow shutter speeds. In this situation though I set the camera to an ISO of 1000 to try to freeze the motion to a point. In most cases this works but does create a bit of noise. (which can be reduceda bit in Post-Processing)

* The Swallow-tailed Manakin is also called the blue Manakin.

* A small bird of 15 cm in length, and weighs only 26 g.

* It is found in north-eastern Argentina, southern and south-eastern Brazil, and Paraguay.

* Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, subtropical or tropical moist montane forests, and heavily degraded former forest.

* Its diet consist of small fruits and insects, normally plucked or snatched usually in aerial sallies.

* Calls sounds like a double “ptuwa ptuwa”.

* Female lays 2 eggs, which are incubated for around 18 days. The Nestlings fledge after 20 days.

* The Swallow-tailed Manakin has a very wide range, is common and is presumed to have a large total population. The population trend is thought to be stable but in the future could suffer from habitat loss. The Swallow-tailed Manakin it is classified as a species of “least concern”.