Band-tailed Manakin

The band-tailed manakin is 10 to 11 cm (3.9 to 4.3 in) long and weighs 11.5 to 19 g (0.41 to 0.67 oz). The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males of the nominate subspecies P. f. fasciicauda have a yellow face and throat; the rest of their head, nape, and upper mantle are red. The rest of their upperparts, wings, and tail are mostly black. They have a white base to the tail and a white patch on the inner webs of the flight feathers that shows as a stripe in flight. The red of the nape extends onto the breast with some yellow mixed in and the rest of their underparts are light creamy yellow. They have a white or whitish iris. Adult females have a mostly dull olive-green head, upperparts, wings, and tail. Their face and breast have a yellow tinge; their lower breast and belly are grayish that is lightest on the belly. They have a pale gray or magenta to whitish iris. Both sexes have a blackish bill with some pale gray on the mandible, dull reddish legs, and sooty gray feet. Immature males have a brown or gray iris but otherwise resemble adult females. The other subspecies differ little from the nominate. P. f. calamae has slightly more red on its breast, P. f. scarlatina even more and deeper red, and P. f. saturata a nearly entirely red breast and upper belly. The formative plumage is olive-green overall, with distinct molt limits in the greater coverts. …

The band-tailed manakin is a bird of the southern Amazon Basin and the Pantanal. The subspecies are found thus:

P. f. calamae: west-central Brazil on the upper Madeira River and far northwestern Mato Grosso P. f. saturata: Huallaga River watershed in northern Peru's Department of San Martín P. f. purusiana: from eastern Peru between Loreto and Cuzco departments east into western Brazil's Acre and western Amazonas states P. f. fasciicauda: from Madre de Dios and northern Puno departments in southeastern Peru east into Bolivia's northern Santa Cruz Department P. f. scarlatina: central Brazil roughly bounded by central Pará, western Mato Grosso do Sul, southern Goiás, western Minas Gerais, and northwestern São Paulo states extending into far northern Bolivia's Pando and Beni departments and far northeastern Argentina's Misiones Province; also isolated populations in northeastern Brazil's Ceará and Alagoas states. The band-tailed manakin inhabits lowland várzea and gallery forests. In elevation it reaches 600 m (2,000 ft) in Brazil and 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in Peru.

Band-tailed manakins are frugivorous passerines, though they have been recorded briefly following swarms of Eciton burchelli army ants. In a study in South Brazil (Mato Grosso do Sul), 93% of band-tailed manakin fecal samples were composed of fruits and seeds, with the remaining 7% being insect remains.