Black manakin

{{Speciesbox | image = Xenopipo atronitens Black Manakin (male); Machadinho d'Oeste, Rondônia, Brazil (cropped).jpg | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name=IUCN>{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |date=2018 |title=Black Manakin ''Xenopipo atronitens'' |volume=2018 |article-number=e.T22701125A130271310 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2018-2.RLTS.T22701125A130271310.en |access-date=13 October 2025}}</ref> | genus = Xenopipo | species = atronitens | authority = Cabanis, 1847 | synonyms = | range_map = Xenopipo atronitens map.svg }}

The '''black manakin''' ('''''Xenopipo atronitens''''') is a species of bird in the family Pipridae.<ref name=IOC15.1>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/new/bow/cotingas/ |title=Cotingas, manakins, tityras, becards |website=IOC World Bird List |version =v 15.1 | editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen |date=March 2025 |access-date=3 March 2025 }}</ref> It is found in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.<ref name=SACCcountries>Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, D. F. Lane, L, N. Naka, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 29 September 2025. Species Lists of Birds for South American Countries and Territories. South American Classification Committee associated with the International Ornithological Union. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCCountryLists.htm retrieved September 29, 2025</ref>

==Taxonomy and systematics==

Jean Cabanis erected genus ''Xenopipo'' in 1847 with the black manakin as its type species.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Cabanis |first=Jean |title=Ornithologische Notizen | date= 1847 | journal=Archiv für Naturgeschichte | publisher=Nicolai | volume=1 |pages=235–236 |language=German | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14785205 |access-date=October 13, 2025 }}</ref> It shares the genus with the olive manakin (''X. uniformis'').<ref name=IOC15.1/> The black manakin is monotypic.<ref name=IOC15.1/>

==Description==

The black manakin is {{convert|12|to|13|cm|in|sigfig=2|abbr=on}} long and weighs {{convert|12.5|to|18|g|oz|sigfig=2|abbr=on}}. The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males are almost entirely glossy black; their wings and tail are slightly duller and browner. Adult females have dark olive upperparts, a grayish throat, and yellowish olive underparts. Both sexes have a dark brown iris and dark olive-gray legs and feet. Both sexes have a heavy bill; males' are pale bluish gray and females' have a blackish maxilla and a pale bluish gray mandible.<ref name=BLMA-BOW>Snow, D. (2020). Black Manakin (''Xenopipo atronitens''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.blaman1.01 retrieved October 13, 2025</ref>

==Distribution and habitat==

The black manakin has a highly disjunct distribution. One large range extends from Meta Department in central Colombia widening to the east across northern Amazonas and Roraima in northern Brazil, Amazonas and southern and central Bolívar in Venezuela, most of Guyana, northern French Guiana and Suriname, and back into northern Brazil in Amapá.<ref name=BLMA-BOW/><ref name=McMullan>{{cite book | last1 =McMullan | first1 =Miles | last2 =Donegan | first2 =Thomas M. | last3 =Quevedo | first3 =Alonso | title = Field Guide to the Birds of Colombia | publisher = Fundación ProAves| date =2010 | location =Bogotá | pages =174 |isbn =978-0-9827615-0-2 }}</ref><ref name=Hilty>{{cite book | last =Hilty | first =Steven L. | title =Birds of Venezuela | publisher =Princeton University Press | edition =second | date =2003 | location =Princeton NJ | pages =664 | language =English }}</ref> Another large range is in central Amazonian Brazil in a triangle roughly bounded by east-central Amazonas, central Goiás, and eastern Tocantins. There are also small scattered Brazilian populations in southern Amazonas, Acre, and Rondônia.<ref name=BLMA-BOW/><ref name=vanPerlo>{{cite book | last =van Perlo | first = Ber| title =A Field Guide to the Birds of Brazil | publisher =Oxford University Press | date =2009 | location =New York | pages =278–279 |isbn=978-0-19-530155-7 }}</ref> It also occurs very thinly in Brazil between the two large ranges.<ref name=vanPerlo/> There are additional small populations in Peru's Loreto, Ucayali, and southern Madre de Dios and Bolivia's Beni and Santa Cruz.<ref name=BLMA-BOW/><ref name=Schulenberg>{{cite book | last =Schulenberg | first =T.S. | last2 =Stotz | first2 =D.F. | last3 =Lane | first3 =D.F. | last4 =O'Neill | first4 =J.P. | last5 =Parker | first5 =T.A. III | title =Birds of Peru | publisher =Princeton University Press | edition =revised and updated |series=Princeton Field Guides | date =2010 | location =Princeton, NJ | pages =500 |isbn = 978-0691130231 }}</ref>

The black manakin inhabits a variety of somewhat open landscapes including savanna woodlands and thickets, gallery forest, and stunted ''várzea''. Much of its habitat is on nutrient-poor sandy soils.<ref name=BLMA-BOW/> In elevation it is found below {{convert|500|m|ft|abbr=on}} in Colombia and mostly below {{convert|700|m|ft|abbr=on}} but up to {{convert|1200|m|ft|abbr=on}} in Venezuela.<ref name=McMullan/><ref name=Hilty/>

==Behavior== ===Movement===

The black manakin is a year-round resident.<ref name=BLMA-BOW/>

===Feeding===

The black manakin feeds on fruits and insects that it grabs from foliage and branches with short sallies from a perch. It typically feeds singly though two or three may feed in the same tree, and it regularly joins mixed species feeding flocks.<ref name=BLMA-BOW/><ref name=Hilty/>

===Breeding===

Males display at leks to females, but the display is "unspectacular, no more than calling and chasing". Nothing else is known about the species' breeding biology.<ref name=BLMA-BOW/>

{{birdsong|url=https://xeno-canto.org/species/Xenopipo-atronitens |species=the black manakin}} ===Vocalization===

The black manakin has a variety of loud, sharp calls including "''skee! kip-kip-kip-krrr'', with many variations, and a dry, rattling ''trrrrrrrrrup''"<ref name=BLMA-BOW/> and a "very high, chirping ''writ wit wit''" that varies in pitch.<ref name=vanPerlo/>

==Status==

The IUCN has assessed the black manakin as being of Least Concern. It has a very large range; its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. No immediate threats have been identified.<ref name=IUCN/> It is considered fairly common in Colombia and Venezuela and locally fairly common in Peru.<ref name=McMullan/><ref name=Hilty/><ref name=Schulenberg/> It is fairly common in the two large Brazilian ranges and rare to uncommon between them and to their west.<ref name=vanPerlo/> Even in its large nominally contiguous ranges it is patchily distributed.<ref name=BLMA-BOW/>

==References== {{Reflist}}

black manakin Category:Birds of the Guiana Shield Category:Birds of the Amazon rainforest Category:Birds of the Colombian Amazon Category:Birds of the Venezuelan Amazon black manakin Category:Taxonomy articles created by Polbot