Pale-bellied Tyrant-manakin - Neopelma pallescens

Pale-bellied Tyrant-manakin (Neopelma pallescens)

Carajás, Pará, Brazil
January 2002

The Neopelma tyrant-manakins are rather dull-coloured "manakins" that look a bit like elaenia flycatchers. In fact they appear not to be true manakins but are more closely related to tyrant flycatchers.

Sick classifies the Pale-bellied Tyrant-manakin as a Brazilian endemic found in eastern Brazil from São Paulo to the mouth of the Amazon but Ridgely & Tudor include north east Bolivia in its range.

They inhabit deciduous and gallery woodland as well as forest and cerradão. These birds were in a type of cerrado in Carajás referred to as "canga" and, while the first 2 photos were taken in January 2002, the final two were taken in October 2005 in almost exactly the same spot. While their diet consists mainly of insects some fruit is also consumed.

The males display on a low perch jumping a few centimetres and sometimes turning round in mid-air before landing again. It can produce a curious gong-like noise by beating its wings together.

Pale-bellied Tyrant-manakin, Carajás, Pará, Brazil, October 2005 - click for larger image

There is an illustration in Ridgely & Tudor, Volume 2, Plate 46

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