Golden-crowned manakin
The golden-crowned manakin is a small species of perching bird in the manakin family. It is endemic to Brazil.
Taxonomy and systematics
Helmut Sick described this species in 1959 based on a series of specimens collected a few years before near a small tributary of the upper Rio Cururu-ri in the east Brazilian Amazon. The species was only rediscovered in 2002 and is now known from a number of locations in an area bordered by the Jamanxim and Cururu rivers and the Cachimbo Range. There was also concern that it was not a full species but rather a hybrid between the opal-crowned manakin and snow-capped manakin.Genomic analyses reported in 2017 provide evidence that the golden-crowned manakin is a full species, and that it represents one of the few cases of hybrid species in birds. The authors posit that the species evolved from opal-crowned x snow-capped hybrids. The golden-crowned manakin closely resembles both its putative parent species with the exception of its unique yellow crown. The white crown of the snow-capped manakin and the opalescent crown of the opal-crowned manakin represent structural colors produced by different nanostructural organizations of the feather barb keratin matrix. The yellow crown of the golden-crowned manakin is intermediate between the two parent species which is thought to have disrupted the structural mechanisms of the parents leading to the much duller look of its crown. Following hybridization, sexual selection is proposed to have favored sequestration of yellow producing carotenoid pigments into the crown as a way to render males more attractive to females.
The golden-crowned manakin is monotypic.
Description
The golden-crowned manakin is about long. The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males have a greenish gold crown and nape. Their rest of their head and their upper back are green and their lower back and uppertail coverts yellow-green. Their wings and tail are mostly blackish with wide green feather edges. Their chin, throat, and breast are green and their belly and undertail coverts yellow. Adult females have an entirely green head and upperparts and are otherwise like males. Both sexes have a pale grayish iris, a pale bluish bill, and pinkish legs and feet.Distribution and habitat
The golden-crowned manakin has a small range in Brazil's southwestern Pará along the upperCururu and Jamanxim rivers; both are tributaries of the Tapajós River. It inhabits humid forest at elevations up to about.