The Club-winged Manakin has the unique ability to create musical sounds with its wings
Male Club-winged Manakins are small, colourful birds from South America that can vibrate their wings at more than 100 cycles per second, twice the speed of Hummingbirds. This incredible skill isn't used for flying but instead to impress females with its violin-like hum. Hear this unique bird song in this video from National Geographic. The Club-winged Manakin, found only in threatened cloud forest in the Andes Mountains between Ecuador and Colombia, has adapted its wings in this odd way due to sexual selection; the distinctive sound makes the male more attractive to females. High-speed video recordings played back in slow motion show that to attract a mate, the male leans forward, raises their wings behind their back and flips them to make the hum. Special inner feathers rub together to make the sound. Each wing has one feather with a pick and an adjacent feather with ridges. The bird hits the wings together at a very high speed to create its own violin-like hum.
Other birds make sounds with their wings and communicate this way, but none of these are as extreme and impressive as the Club-winged Manakin.
Maintaining a safe and healthy habit is important with the Club-winged Manakin population appearing to be decreasing. Right now the decline isn't rapid enough to approach the Vulnerable Species classification, and the Club-winged Manakin is currently at Least Concern. Let's make sure it stays this way!
Discover more:
- Rare bird 'sings' with its feathers to attract a mate, Cornell researcher finds
- 'How the club-winged manakin got its groove' - Berkeley University
- Club-winged Manakin - Bird Life International Datazone
- Display Behaviors, Mechanical Sounds, and Evolutionary Relationships of Club-Winged Manakin - K. S. Bostwick