Choco Manakin

The Choco manakin is 11 to 13 cm (4.3 to 5.1 in) long and weighs 15 to 21 g (0.53 to 0.74 oz). The sexes are alike. Adults of the nominate subspecies have a pale olivaceous green head, upperparts, and central tail feathers. Their wings and outer tail feathers are dusky or brownish with moss green outer edges. Their throat, breast, flanks and undertail coverts are olive and their chin and central belly are pale yellowish. They have a brown to dark brown iris with a pale ring around the eye, a black maxilla, a dark gray mandible, and highly variable legs and feet with shades of gray to blackish to brown. Subspecies C. l. suffusa is "very much darker throughout" than the nominate with a brighter yellow belly.

Subspecies C. l. suffusa of the Choco manakin is the more northerly of the two. It is found from eastern Guna Yala (formerly San Blas Province) and eastern Darién Province in eastern Panama south into northwestern Colombia. The nominate subspecies is found west of the Andes from northwestern Colombia south into northwestern Ecuador as far as Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas and Pichincha provinces. It might also be found in the northern part of Colombia's Central Andes though that population might be of subspecies C. l. suffusa. The species inhabits the undergrowth to the mid-story of humid to wet evergreen forest in the lowlands and foothills. In elevation it ranges from near sea level to 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in Colombia and to 1,100 m (3,600 ft) in Ecuador.

The Choco manakin's diet has not been detailed but is known to include fruit, with that of Anthurium species apparently preferred. It also takes insects. It usually takes fruit with a brief hover at the end of a short flight from a perch.