Saltarín crestinaranja/Orange-crowned Manakin/Heterocercus aurantiivertex

Nombre en español: Saltarín crestinaranja

Nombre en inglés: Orange-crowned Manakin

Nombre científico: Heterocercus aurantiivertex

Familia: Pipridae

Canto: Peter Boesman

El saltarín crestinaranja (en Ecuador) (Heterocercus aurantiivertex), también denominado saltarín de corona naranja (en Perú), bailarín de copete anaranjado o dançarino-de-crista-laranja (en portugués, en Brasil), es una especie de ave paseriforme perteneciente al género Heterocercus de la familia Pipridae. Es nativo de América del Sur.

Distribución y hábitat

Se distribuye localmente en el este de Ecuador (Napo) y norte del Perú (suroeste de Loreto). El Comité Brasileño de Registros Ornitológicos (CBRO) lo considera como de “probable ocurrencia” en Brasil, inferida a partir de su patrón de distribución y de dispersión con base en evidencias documentales.
Es incomún y local en el sotobosque de bosques de várzea, principalmente en drenajes de aguas oscuras; abajo de los 300 msnm de altitud. Está clasificado como “preocupación menor” por la IUCN.

*Heterocercus aurantiivertex*; ilustración por Smit, 1881, para *Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum. Volume 14*.

Orange-crowned Manakin

The Orange-crowned Manakin is a large, distinctive manakin that forms a superspecies with the Flame-crowned (H. linteatus) and Yellow-crowned (H. flavivertex) manakins. It is olive-green overall with a white throat and, in the male, a bright yellow-orange coronal patch. It occurs in low-lying, flooded forests, particularly in black-water drainages. Here it sallies after fruit and insects in the understory. The typical call is a thin trill. In display, the male spirals high above the canopy, then drops rapidly and utters a hiss until reaching the canopy where it utters a loud «pop«.

Identification

14 cm; 21–22 g. Distinctive and unusual manakin with graduated tail (outer rectrices shortest), silky long throat feathers, relatively long and narrow bill. Male has greyish-olive head with orange coronal patch (often concealed), dull olive upperparts and sides, greyish-white throat, uniform dull cinnamon-buff underparts; iris dark brown; bill and legs dark. Differs from H. flavivertex in having orange (less yellow) on crown, somewhat duller upperparts, greyer throat feathers not (or only slightly) elongated, paler and more uniform underparts. Female is like male but duller, without orange on crown, shorter wings; differs from females of congeners in plainer-headed appearance, paler dull cinnamon-buff underparts. Immature resembles female.

Systematics History

Sometimes considered conspecific with H. flavivertex and H. linteatus, but differs from latter in characters given under that species; and from former in its more orange, less yellow in crown; uniformly dull cinnamon-buff vs chestnut, grading paler, underparts; greyer, less elongate throat feathers; and song a long trill of c. 2 seconds, usually rising/falling twice, entirely unlike other congeners (at least 4); also apparently shorter tail in male and shorter bill in female, but sample sizes small. Monotypic.

Subspecies

Monotypic.

Distribution

Locally in E Ecuador (Sucumbíos to Pastaza), NE Peru (Loreto) and extreme W Amazonian Brazil (R Javari).

Habitat

Seasonally flooded forest (várzea), mainly in black-water drainages; to 300 m.

Movement

Presumed resident.

Diet and Foraging

Fruits and insects; small fruits of figs (Ficus) an important component of diet. Food items plucked or snatched in aerial sallies.

Sounds and Vocal Behavior

Male advertising call a thin, meandering trill of variable length, 1–3 seconds; loud chatter in aggressive interactions; in rapid vertical descent above forest canopy a hissing sound, increasing in volume as bird’s speed increases (and almost certainly made by wings), followed by explosive “pop” (perhaps made by wings and/or tail) at end of descent.

Breeding

Egg-laying recorded in Feb in N Peru. Male defends display “court” in forest; also has spectacular aerial display, flies steeply upwards in decreasingly narrow spirals to 60–100 m above canopy, then plummets down, gaining momentum with rapid wingbeats for 15–20 m, then continues descent on partially closed wings until 2–3 m above canopy, where abruptly changes direction, and finally flies in wide horizontal arc above canopy before entering trees at great speed and returning to its court. One active nest found (Peru), a shallow cup of vegetable fibres, so thinly woven that eggs visible from below, attached by spider web to supporting branch within fork of thin horizontal branch c. 4 m above small stream; contained 2 eggs; incubation and fledging periods not known.

Conservation Status

Not globally threatened. Restricted-range species: present in Upper Amazon-Napo Lowlands EBA. Known from relatively few localities. Formerly considered rare, but recent study has shown it to be reasonably common in preferred habitat. In Ecuador, recently reported at various sites in region of R Napo and R Aguarico, including e.g. Sacha Lodge, Yuturi Lodge and La Selva; also observed more regularly in NE Peru. Range may be considerably wider than the few records indicate; possibly occurs in S Colombia (Putumayo).