Breeding biology of the Pale-bellied Tyrant-manakin Neopelma pallescens (Aves: Pipridae) in south-eastern Brazil

ABSTRACT

The Pale-bellied Tyrant-manakin (Neopelma pallescens) inhabits semi-deciduous and riparian forests in central-north South America. Contrary to most manakins, there is no evident sexual dichromatism in the species and little is known about its breeding biology. We studied the breeding biology of a colour-banded population of the species from August to December 2016 and from August to October 2017 in the Campus Florestal of the Universidade Federal de Viçosa, south-eastern Brazil. The breeding season extended from early September to late November. The species is promiscuous, with males exhibiting simple courtship displays (exploded leks) in individual arenas. The nest (n = 13) is a cup attached by its top lip between forked branches and is very simple, with a structural layer made with dry grass stems and heads, attached to the branch with spider silk. The outer and lining layers are absent. The mean clutch size was 1.8 eggs (n = 11), which are oval and pale coloured, covered with spots of different shades of brown, often concentrated in the larger pole. Mean egg length and width (± SD) were 21.0 ± 0.9 × 15.8 ± 0.7 mm (n = 14) and the mean weight was 2.8 ± 0.4 g (n = 10). The incubation period could not be estimated, but the nestling period was 15 days (n = 2). The simple percentage of successful nests was 15.4%, with 76.9% of the nests depredated and 7.7% abandoned. This is the first detailed study about the breeding biology of any Neopelma species, providing relevant data for the study of the evolution of life history strategies not only for the genus, but for the whole family Pipridae.

KEYWORDS:

• Courtship behaviour
• lek
• Neotropical birds
• reproduction

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Acknowledgements

L.J.F. was supported by a FAPEMIG scholarship. L.E.L.’s studies are supported by CNPq (305401/20149). CEMAVE-ICMBio and CEUA-UFV provided the permits. UFV allowed us to conduct this study in the area under their care. The following people helped during fieldwork: Ana Flávia Carvalho, Ana Luiza Moraes, Bráulio Marçal, Dalila Ferreira, Elen Cristina Barbosa, Ernesto Lemes, Gustavo Martins, Marco Aurélio Alcântara, and Verônica Priscila da Silva. Advanio Silva, João Renato Stehmann, and Marcos Sobral identified the plant species and the nest material. Three anonymous reviewers presented important corrections and suggestions on an earlier version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) [305401/20149] and Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG).