Copulation Captured On Lance-tailed Manakin Cam | May 22, 2026

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Persistence pays off! After yet another cooperative courtship display, alpha male PGVm successfully mates with the female Lance-tailed Manakin twice on camera. Afterwards, she can be seen preening and picks at some local vegetation, which according to our field expert, Dr. Emily DuVal, means she is continuing the nest material hunt. Watch Live at https://AllAboutBirds.org/manakins You can learn more about bird behavior like the dances of the Lance-tailed Manakin in the self-paced, online course "Think Like a Bird." Receive 20% off if you purchase with coupon code TLABcam20. Enroll here: https://hubs.la/Q016NcKw0 This year’s cam features some very familiar birds. The action centers on PGVm (purple-pver-light-green on the left, dark-green-over-metal on the right), an alpha male approaching his 20th birthday this May. He was banded as a nestling in 2006, though he has since lost one of his identifying bands. You can now recognize him by a small patch of missing feathers on the front right side of his red crest, likely the result of a recent scuffle. PGVm has held alpha status at this display site since 2014. He is both the oldest known lance-tailed manakin and the most famous, having appeared in the Netflix documentary Dancing with the Birds. He was also the focus of this webcam in its first years of operation. Since 2020 his dance perch has been in a hard-to-reach spot for webcam broadcasting, but the intrepid field team has figured out a way to highlight him in his golde

Published 2026-05-26 · Watch on YouTube ↗
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