Velvety Manakin

How to find it

Start in the south Pacific, where it is far easier than on the Caribbean side. Photography guides in Costa Rica often find it at fruiting bushes and trees, and at bathing pools in the forest, so these are good places to wait. A long morning at Carara National Park can include it, and the lowland rainforest near Golfito, bordering Piedras Blancas National Park, is another option. Expect brief views: on a 2023 guided deep-south trip it was seen only in a few brief sightings, at Los Cusingos and Wilson Botanical Garden. Listening for the soft trill or the loud lek call is often the way in.

How to recognise it

Manakins are small, stocky birds with big heads and short tails and bills, and the Velvety fits that mould. It measures about 8 to 11 cm long, so think compact, not slender.

The male: jet black, shiny, with a sapphire cap. Manakin males in general are black with bright colour patches such as blue, and this one wears its colour on the crown.

The female: usually plain greenish, and hard to identify. The female Velvety is noticeably blue-green, while females of other manakins are olive-green or greyish-green, so a blue-green tone is the clue worth noting.

What it sounds like

Recording: Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0, source, read 4 Nov 2026.

Behaviour and diet

Males display together at a lek, a shared courtship area, and this has been recorded in Costa Rica, including a courting lek in rainforest in the Sirena sector of Corcovado National Park. At Refugio Los Cusingos the dance is a series of jumps along low, horizontal twigs.

It eats mostly small fruits and also takes some insects. Birds formerly lumped with it are described as sitting still on a perch in shady forest and then darting out. They come to forest edges mainly to feed at fruiting trees, and often join mixed feeding flocks.

Where it lives

The Velvety Manakin lives in mature forest and tall second growth, mostly in lowlands and foothills below about 1,000 m across its range. In Costa Rica it ranges from sea level to about 1,200 m on the Caribbean side and up to about 1,400 m on the Pacific side. Only locally does it reach 1,400 m in the west.

On the Caribbean slope it lives only in the far south of Limón Province. On the Pacific slope it ranges from about central Puntarenas province southward.

When to see it

Most breeding data for this species come from Costa Rica. The breeding season there runs at least from February to June, when males are displaying at leks.

Similar birds

Males are black with a bright blue crown, so they can be confused with the Blue-capped Manakin of Amazonia. In Costa Rica only the Velvety occurs. The two were long lumped as one species called Blue-crowned Manakin, until vocal and genetic differences led to the split. At Carara, look also for Orange-collared and Red-capped Manakins.

Names and lore in Costa Rica

The Spanish name used in Costa Rica is Saltarín Coroniceleste. Panamanians call the same bird Saltarín Aterciopelado, and Ecuadorians call it Saltarín Coroniazul Occidental.

Status and conservation

The official Costa Rican bird list treats it as a resident species, locally common across its range, common on the Pacific side and uncommon on the Caribbean side.

Photography tips

Photography guides often find it at fruiting bushes and trees and at bathing pools in the forest. Birds formerly lumped with it sit still on a perch in shady forest and then dart out, so watch a fruiting tree patiently and be ready for a quick visit.