In the shadowed understory of Central America’s rainforests, this coal-black dancer performs with electric precision. It feeds on small fruits, then clears a tiny court on the forest floor where it snaps, hops, and flashes its radiant golden collar in a ritual older than the trees themselves. What makes it extraordinary is this devotion to performance — shaping the understory by maintaining display courts and dispersing seeds through its fruit-rich diet. A burst of gold in perpetual motion, yet a charismatic architect of the rainforest’s hidden stage.
Golden-collared Manakin 👇
