Club-Winged Manakin Rubs Wings Together to Produce High Humming Sound

Posted on June 25, 2012

Cornell researchers first reported in 2005 on the ability of the male club-winged manakin to rub its wing feathers together to produce a high hum. The sparrow-sized bird lives in the forests of Ecuador and Colombia. Cornell has now discovered that these are the first flying birds known to have solid wing-bones. These bones enables birds to produce their unique courtship sounds

In the male club-winged manakin, the ulna is ridged, solid instead of hollow and 3.5 times the volume of other similar-sized birds' ulnae, including other manakin species. Special sound-producing feathers attached to the ulna resonate to make the courtship tones. The researchers believe the large, dense bones are adapted for courtship and come at a cost to efficient flight where lighter, hollow bones are ideal.

Kim Bostwick, curator of the Cornell Museum of Vertebrates and lead author of the study, says, "The idea that there's this conflict between sexual selection and natural selection is not new."

For example, a male peacock's large, showy feathers also inhibit flight but work well to attract females. She says that with the club-winged manakin, the adaptation "isn't just the feathers and what they look like. This is a functional change at the deepest levels. Ultimately, it's the female that's responsible for this odd bone inside the wing of the male."

Take a look:

The research was published here on Biology Letters.

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