ABSTRACT
The Pipridae, or manakins, are a group of New World suboscines closely allied with tyrant flycatchers. These small frugivores occupy all levels of the interior forest and tend to tolerate edges and fragmentation because of the positive effects on fruiting trees, especially Melastomataceae, which are favored by many manakins. Juveniles and subadults of both sexes wander widely in search of fruiting trees because they are not yet tied to a breeding location; they also probably develop and test their social skills during this time and investigate potential future leks in which to participate as breeding adults. Molt in most, if not all, manakins follows a Complex Basic Strategy. The juvenile plumage apparently is held extremely briefly. In the most frequently captured species at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP) and elsewhere, the preformative molt is typically partial resulting in molt limits among the greater coverts.
