At breeding time, males are involved in lekking behaviour on the forest floor during which they puff out their neck feathers.

The race endemic to Trinidad, M. m. trinitatis is larger than mainland birds, and the female has yellower underparts.

Apart from the buzzing display song, the white-bearded manakin has a number of other calls, including a trilled musical peeerr.

In South America, two thirds of white-bearded manakin's range is in the combined Amazon Basin, the Guianas, and the Orinoco River drainage of Venezuela; also eastern Colombia.

Only one area of the Amazon Basin does not have the species, the 2200 km Purus River region in southwestern Amazonas state.