Manakin mating season in Panama

This video from Panama says about itself:

Morning Courtship Session, May 4, 2016

The Lance-tailed Manakin Cam is a collaboration between Florida State University researcher Dr. Emily DuVal and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology‘s Bird Cams project.

Learn more about manakins and watch live here.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology in the USA writes about this:

This year we’ve been working behind-the-scenes with collaborators from Florida State University to bring you a view of a phenomenon that can be difficult to see: the dance of the Lance-tailed Manakin. Dr. Emily DuVal and her group have been studying a population of manakins in Panama for many years, chipping away at the mysteries behind the interesting social structure of Lance-tailed Manakins.

Thanks to her hard work, we’ve been able to get a “beta” cam system up and running this year as a proof-of-concept that we hope to improve upon for next season. The cam shows a single display perch that is used by a pair of male manakins to court females. The dances themselves are a low-frequency event, with only a handful to a dozen happening within any given day; however, they are complex and beautiful, with the males vocalizing and dancing in a highly coordinated way. The background audio often contains howler monkeys, cicadas, and the vocalizations of other birds, and is a beautiful backdrop to any scene.

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