Spatial organization of Swallow-tailed Manakin males Chiroxiphia caudata

The males of Chiroxiphia caudata organize themselves in polygynous leks, in which the adult males are territorial and maintain dominance over the males of lower hierarchy. Males use court perches to display to females, who visit these locations. The objective of the present work is to verify the size and shape of the home range and territory and overlap of the living areas of C. caudata males. The study was carried out in two areas of deciduous forest in Santa Maria, RS. The observations of the leks males occurred in the reproductive period, from October to February. The observed animals did not exhibit statistically different sizes of home range in the area A as in the area B. Being that the total area used by the males, area A was 9.61 ha and in the area B was 5,15 ha. The overlap was highest among the highest hierarchy levels. It was observed that the areas of life were partially limited by deforested areas. Higher-order individuals presented a more circular home range, as these individuals can not move away from the court perches, since they frequently participate in court displays. The overlapping home range of males of this species have a similar pattern of other members of the Pipridae family, who generally have extreme fidelity to the territories and some individuals remain for years in the same place. It can be concluded that the complexity of social interactions and the use of space go beyond a previous hierarchical establishment.