Brown violet-eared hummingbird

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Brown violet-eared hummingbird
Brown violet-eared hummingbird

Brown violet-eared hummingbird

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Sailor birds (Apodiformes)
Family : Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)
Genre : Violet- eared hummingbirds ( Colibri )
Type : Brown violet-eared hummingbird
Scientific name
Colibri delphinae
( Lesson, RP , 1839)

The Brown violet ear hummingbird ( Colibri delphinae ), also blue violet ear or Big sparkling violetear called, is a type of hummingbirds (Trochilidae). The range of the species includes parts of Belize , Guatemala , Honduras , Nicaragua , Costa Rica , Panama , Colombia , Ecuador , Peru , Bolivia , on Trinidad , Venezuela , Guyana , Suriname and Brazil . The IUCN assesses the population as Least Concern .

features

The brown violet-eared hummingbird reaches a body length of about 11 to 12 cm with a weight of 5.5 to 8 g for males and 6.1 g for females. Both sexes are similar in plumage, but the male is significantly larger in all dimensions, except in the length of the beak. Adult brown violet-eared hummingbirds are mainly grayish brown with a beautifully colored green on the back. The upper tail-coverts are dark, with wide cinnamon-colored hems. The bronze-green tail is adorned with a greenish black subterminal band with narrow ocher-colored to grayish spots. A purple spot extends from below the eye to over the ear covers. The reins and earplugs are yellow-brown to white. The center of the neck glitters green to blue on the lower seams. The beak is black, the legs dark gray. Young birds differ from adults by cinnamon-colored broad or yellow-brown to dull reddish-brown fringes on most of the back feathers. In addition, the blue-violet ear mark is largely or even completely replaced by a dark gray color.

Behavior and nutrition

The birds get their nectar from different flowers, but mostly from short corollas. This also includes trees of the genus Inga , coral trees , Calliandra , Clusia and Warscewiczia , epiphytes of the Marcgraviaceae family , cucurbits of the Gurania genus and bushes of the Cephaelis and Stachytarpheta genus . Usually the flowers are located in the middle strata up to the treetops. Occasionally they also visit very low-lying flowers. They are extremely territorial and mostly dominate other smaller hummingbird species. They regularly hunt smaller insects by breaking out of their seats. They often buzz high in the treetops and plunge down to hunt insects. If they hunt at river currents, the soaring altitude and the falling are clearly shifted downwards.

Vocalizations

The singing typically consists of four to seven loud two-syllable chit or jit or even softer p'tip sounds. The whole thing then takes about two seconds. They utter these sounds incessantly over a long period of time. Liquid chatter and gurgling tones are also part of their repertoire.

Reproduction

Their breeding season is in the late rainy and early dry season from November to May in Costa Rica, from December to January in eastern Venezuela, and in November, April and June in Colombia. In Venezuela, the lek can even be maintained until April. The leks are located in the treetops where you can find three to eight males at intervals of around 30 to 60 meters. These meetings can consist of several dozen brown violet-eared hummingbirds, which are, however, chattering over a relatively large area. The small, goblet-shaped nest is built from leaves and attached to twigs or small bushes under bamboo. It is mostly found in Trinidad one to two meters above the ground.

distribution and habitat

Distribution area of ​​the brown violet-eared hummingbird

The brown violet-eared hummingbird inhabits the treetops and borders of moist forests, high secondary vegetation, semi-open habitats such as coffee plantations and bushy clearings. They are mostly high up in the trees, but often get lost in the height of the bushes, gaps in the forest and clearings. It prefers hilly areas and lower mountain regions, but seasonally you can occasionally meet it in the lowlands. In Costa Rica, most reports come from altitudes between 100 and 1600 meters, in Colombia between 100 and 2800 meters, in Venezuela between 300 and 2000 meters, in Ecuador between 1000 and 1800 meters and in Peru between heights 700 and 1700 meters.

migration

In most distribution areas, they breed at altitudes over 500 to 900 meters and migrate downwards after the breeding season. In Venezuela the numbers fluctuate dramatically regardless of the month or year, with sometimes hundreds of males in the Sierra de Lema in eastern Bolívar from December to March.

Subspecies

The species is considered to be monotypical . Colibri delphinae greenwalti Ruschi , 1962 is now considered a synonym for the nominate form .

Etymology and history of research

René Primevère Lesson described the brown violet- eared hummingbird under the name Ornismya Delphinae . Lesson did not know the exact location. Only later was it added to the genus Colibri , newly created by Johann Baptist von Spix in 1824 , which this u. a. for the amethyst- eared hummingbird ( Colibri serrirostris ( Vieillot , 1816)) (Sym: Colibri crispus ). This name is the Spanish word for hummingbird and probably originally comes from the Caribbean. The original description does not reveal who »delphinae« is dedicated to. Da Lesson, in his work Musée Anaïs, ou choix de vues des monuments historiques de la Saintonge et de l'Aunis. Germaine de Staël mentioned in connection with his daughter Anaïs, the name could be inspired by Delphine d'Albémar, the heroine of the briefcase novel Delphine . "Greenewalti" honors Crawford Hallock Greenewalt, Sr. (1902–1993).

literature

  • Frank Garfield Stiles III, Guy Maxwell Kirwan , Eduardo de Juana in: Josep del Hoyo , Andrew Elliott, Jordi Sargatal, David Andrew Christie, Eduardo de Juana: Brown Violet-ear (Colibri delphinae). In: Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive . Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
  • James A. Jobling: Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4 .
  • René Primevère Lesson : Oiseaux inédits . In: Revue Zoologique par La Société Cuvierienne . tape 2 , 1839, p. 43-45 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • René Primevère Lesson: Musée Anaïs, ou choix de vues des monuments historiques de la Saintonge et de l'Aunis . Imprimerie de Henry Loustau Et Cie, Rochefort 1847 ( books.google.de ).
  • Johann Baptist von Spix: Avium species novae, quas in itinere annis MDCCCXVII – MDCCCXX per Brasiliam jussu et auspiciis Maximiliani Josephi I. Bavariae Regis Augustissini suscepto colleoit et descripsit . tape 1 . Impensis editores, Munich 1824 ( biodiversity library ).
  • Augusto Ruschi: To novo representante de Colibri (Trochilidae, Aves) da região de Andaraí no Estado da Bahia . In: Boletim do Museu de Biologia Mello Leitão . No. 32 , 1962, pp. 1–7 ( boletim.sambio.org.br [PDF; 325 kB ]).

Web links

Commons : Brown violet- eared hummingbird ( Colibri delphinae )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Frank Garfield Stiles III u. a.
  2. ^ IOC World Bird List Hummingbirds
  3. ↑ a b Augusto Ruschi, p. 2.
  4. ↑ René Primevère Lesson (1839), p. 44.
  5. ^ Johann Baptist von Spix, p. 80
  6. ↑ James A. Jobling p. 113
  7. ↑ René Primevère Lesson (1847), p. VIII.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The following arguments could support this thesis. 1) Lesson described the Orangeatzel ( Mino anais ), dedicated to his daughter, in the same article as the brown sparkling violetear. 2) Germaine de Staël is expressly mentioned in the context of Charles Henri Frédéric Dumont de Sainte Croix, the father of Lesson's second wife Clémence Marie and grandfather of Anaïs in the Musée Anaïs . 3) Lesson also had a penchant for literature in other hummingbird names. So is z. B. Amazilia dedicated to a heroine from a novel by Jean-François Marmontel .