Male manakins spend up to 80% of the day courting females. To help them in this task many males have twoattention-grabbing features: brightly coloured plumage and elaborate courtship displays.

The White-collared Manakin Manacus candei is a resident bird of the low elevation forests on the Caribbean slopes between South East Mexico and Western Panama. At 11cm in length and a weight of 18.5g, with black wings and crown, a black band across the back, white throat, chest and upper back, olive-green rump, yellow belly, orange legs, and black bill the male is a particularly attractive manakin (see photo 1). The female is plainer (olive-green bird with yellowish belly, orange legs and black peak - see photo 2) and thus less visible to the many predators.

Called 'Saltar’n Cuelliblanco' in Spanish (literal English translation 'White-collared Dancer'), the male courts the females by performing an attractive visual and audio display in a small forest clearing called a court - see photo 3. A typical court is a cleared patch of forest floor, 1 m diameter, surrounded by 3-7 small near-vertical tree saplings (usually 10-15 mm in diameter) that the bird uses as perches. The male keeps the court clear of obstructions by, for example, pecking growing seedlings to destruction and carrying away fallen leaves and twigs. Within the area of his court the male makes rapid and repetitive jumps between his perches (usually accompanied by distinctive wing snaps or buzzes) together with frequent vocal single note calls and whistles. Males sometimes puff out the feathers on their throats in the form of a 'beard', when stationary. The display can best be appreciated by sitting silently behind a hide about 5 m from the focal court. Video clip 1 gives an impression of a typical display - be sure to switch on your speakers!

White-collared Manakins are relatively common at La Suerte Biological Field Station. During a three week study in January 2002 approximately 100 individual males were seen displaying on their courts. The courts were found within close (about 5 m) distance to those of other males in that particular lek. Nine leks of between approximately 2 and 15 courts were identified. In long dry and sunny spells, between about 6.30 and 8.30 in the morning and 12 and 3 in the afternoon, leks of snapping male White-collared Manakins could be heard from up to several hundred metres away. Females periodically visited the leks and did a joint display with the males. On one occasion a female was seen consecutively visiting and displaying with males on three adjacent courts.

Our future work will involve more detailed study of the factors involved in mate choice by female manakins. Is male display rate, constancy of presence of a male at his court or position of the court within the lek important in mate choice? We are looking forward to finding out.