White-collared Manakin: Pierrella Ecology Gardens, Sarapiqui, Costa Rica, March 2025 — there is noting much more fun than watching, and listening to, a male White Collard Manakin on his lek. They make a lek by cleaning a small patch of rainforest floor, about 3 feet in diameter, of very twig, leaf, and sapling plant to create a bare patch. They then sit at one edge and sing until a female responds. At that point they raise their wings up over their back so the tips, which have a velcro like structure, stick together and snap them apart fast enough to break the sound barrier (that is faster than the speed of sound), which creates a loud pop…like the cracking of a whip. The pop propels them back and forth across the lek, edge to edge almost faster than the eye can follow. He might pop back and forth a half a dozen time before moving back to a perch. The hope (both on our part and the male’s) is that a female will come and join in…popping back and forth across the lek in time with the male. We did not get to see that, but we got to see the male do his thing many times. The leks are always in deep foliage, and deep shadow, so managing photos is always a challenge. Sony a6700. Tamron 50-400 at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Photomator.