The Manakin

No, not the creepy humanoid figurines used on movie sets or showcased in brightly lit clothing store windows. That’s mannequin. Try typing that into Google. Instead of seeing your favorite bird, you’ll be instantly greeted with advertisements selling such items as “Police Realistic Male Mannequin” and “Mannequin Female Full Body — Anne” for $315 and $89, a steal.

I like these little guys a lot. They’re my favorite bird amongst all the different species of birds, and they’re pretty far up there on my list of favorite weird animals. And that’s a lot of animals with hard to pronounce Latin names. But it really took just one video and a pair of binoculars to convince me that these funny little hoppers took the cake. Firstly, here’s the video:

A week before the end of the spring semester in my freshman year of college, my biology professor introduced me to a really incredible opportunity to travel to Panama for the summer, and work as a research assistant in the field of tropical ecology and conservation. Jobless and pre-resigned to the idea of spending the summer living in my parent’s basement drinking Coca Cola and playing League of…