Red-capped Manakin

"The Moonwalking Bird"

Red-capped Manakin Moonwalking Bird

The Red-capped Manakin (Pipra mentalis), aka the Moonwalking Bird, is an amazing little bird. Its famous moonwalking behavior captured on film is one of my all-time favorite bird videos. I actually first saw the bird on on an episode of the NATURE series, "Deep Jungle".

Manakins are sparrow-sized birds that live in tropical forests in South and Central America. Males perform elaborate courtship displays to impress females. Included in its repertoire is Michael Jackson's moonwalk. Or does Michael Jackson do the manakin moonwalk? Maybe he stole it from the birds?!

Even people who aren't into birding are amazed by the "moonwalking bird". I've seen comments from people that say "...that's not real, it's trick photography," but amazingly it's not. Just slowed-down videography caught on special high-speed cameras. This advanced camera can capture a few seconds of action at up to 1,000 frames per second. So what you are seeing in the video is not real-time. It's so slowed down so much it almost looks fake. But it's not.

The high-speed film also helped to explain how the manakins made all the weird buzzes and other noises when displaying. It's produced not vocally, but rather by the vibration of their wing tips. They actually move faster than a hummingbird's wings!

The woman in the video is Kim Bostwick, an animal behaviorist who studied Manakins, and captured their behaviors on film at 500 frames/second.

Long Version of the Red-capped Manakin Video (shows wing-noise displays and moonwalk)