Velvety Manakin

The velvety manakin is about 8 to 11 cm (3.1 to 4.3 in) long. The species is sexually dimorphic. Adult males of the nominate subspecies have a bright blue crown and upper nape. The rest of their plumage is a "deep and lustrous" black with a purplish-bluish wash on the rump and uppertail coverts. The black becomes somewhat sootier when worn. Adult females have grass-green upperparts whose color is brightest on the rump and uppertail coverts. They have a mostly pale grayish green face and throat. Their breast and flanks are dull green and their belly and undertail coverts olive-grayish with a slight yellowish tinge. Males of subspecies L. v. minuscula have a more ultramarine crown and females slightly deeper green upperparts than the nominate. Both sexes of both subspecies have a bright reddish brown or deep red iris, a bluish gray maxilla, a black or dark gray mandible, and black or dark gray legs and feet with brownish soles.

The velvety manakin has a disjunct distribution. The nominate subspecies is found the Caribbean slope from far southern Limón Province in Costa Rica south through Panama to Veraguas Province. It also is found on the Pacific slope of Costa Rica from about Garabito Canton in central Puntarenas Province and from there south through Panama to Veraguas. Subspecies L. v. minuscula is found from the Canal Zone in Panama east into north-central Colombia to Caldas Department and south through Colombia along the Pacific slope into northwestern Ecuador as far as Manabí Province. The species inhabits humid primary forest and mature secondary forest. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 1,200 m (3,900 ft) on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica and to 1,400 m (4,600 ft) on the Pacific side. It is mostly found below 1,000 m (3,300 ft) elsewhere.

The velvety manakin feeds mostly on small fruits and also includes insects in its diet. Females and juveniles often join mixed-species feeding flocks. Fruits and insects are grabbed from vegetation with a short upward sally from a perch; insects are also taken in mid-air.