Purple short-billed hummingbird

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Purple short-billed hummingbird
Purple short-billed hummingbird painted by John Gould & Henry Constantine Richter

Purple short-billed hummingbird painted by John Gould & Henry Constantine Richter

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Sailor birds (Apodiformes)
Family : Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)
Genre : Short-billed hummingbirds ( Ramphomicron )
Type : Purple short-billed hummingbird
Scientific name
Ramphomicron microrhynchum
( Boissonneau , 1840)

The purple short-billed hummingbird ( Ramphomicron microrhynchum ), sometimes also called the small -billed hummingbird , is a species of bird in the hummingbird family (Trochilidae). The species has a large range that includes the South American countries Bolivia , Peru , Ecuador , Colombia and Venezuela . The IUCN assesses the population as Least Concern .

features

The purple short-billed hummingbird reaches a body length of about 8 centimeters. It has the shortest beak of all hummingbirds, only up to 5 millimeters long. The male has a shiny purple top. There is a small white spot behind the eyes. The throat sparkles gold green while the rest of the underside shimmers green. The long forked tail is black. The female is slightly paler in color. The top is metallic green and also has the postocular white spots. Sometimes it has white stripes at the back of the top. The underside is white with plenty of green, round speckles. It has a relatively long black tail, on which the outer control feathers are spotted in white. The tail is not forked as much as in the male.

distribution and habitat

The species occurs at the edges of typical cloud forests and in the upper areas of moist crooked wood zones with low, gnarled trees and in the bushy highlands at altitudes between 2500 and 3600 meters.

behavior

During the midday heat, the bird mostly stays in the crown area of ​​the trees. Then it usually sits in the outer branches of the trees or in their treetops. It collects its nectar from the blossoming trees together with other species. When searching for nectar, it usually buzzes in front of the flowers and rarely holds on. In addition to the nectar, it feeds on insects. He scours through the leaves and picks out the insects. Its pendulous flight resembles that of bees. In front of the eyes of a female, the male shows pronounced courtship behavior.

Subspecies

Distribution area of ​​the purple short-billed hummingbird

So far, four subspecies are known, which differ mainly in their color.

  • Ramphomicron microrhynchum microrhynchum ( Boissonneau , 1840) - Found in the Andes from Colombia via Ecuador to northwestern Peru. Nominate form
  • Ramphomicron microrhynchum andicolum Simon , 1921 - Simon originally gave the name R. m. andicola . Present in the Venezuelan Andes of the state of Mérida . In the male tail, in contrast to the nominate form, black-violet. The chest and belly are shimmering grass green. The under tail coverts are cinnamon to yellow-brown with small blue-violet dots. The female is bronze colored on the upper tail covers. The underside is more yellow-brown than white with also green spots. The under tail-coverts are light red-brown.
  • Ramphomicron microrhynchum albiventre Carriker , 1935 - Widespread in the Andes of central Peru in the regions of Huánuco , Cuzco and Apurímac . Upper side similar to the nominate form. Only differs on the underside. The color of the throat is less golden orange, more yellow green. Underside clearer green and less golden bronze. The yellow-brown on the rump and the lower tail-coverts is replaced by a dirty white. The central control feathers on the under tail coverts are dark purple.
  • Ramphomicron microrhynchum bolivianum Schuchmann , 1984 - Found in Bolivia in the Cordillera de Cocapata in the northwest corner of the Cochabamba department . This subspecies is the only one with a metallic purple top. The underside with the yellow-green throat is similar to R. m. albiventre . The green on the belly is darker than in the nominate form and R. m. andicolum . The strongly forked tail is dark blue.

Etymology and history of research

Auguste Boissonneau described the hummingbird under the name Ornismya microrhyncha . According to the original description, the article was from December 1839, but was probably not published until 1840. Only later was the species assigned to the genus Ramphomicron . This word is derived from the Greek words "rhámphos ράμφος " for "beak" and " micron μικρὸν " for "small". The species name has the same etymological origin as the generic name, only that here the words (mikron + rhámphos) are put together the other way around. "Andicolum" is a Latin word formation from "Andinum" for "Andes" and "-cola, colere" for "residents, inhabit". "Albiventre" is made up of the Latin words "albus" for "white" and "ventris" for "belly". After all, »bolivianum« stands for the country of Bolivia, since Karl-Ludwig Schuchmann only assigned the distribution area of ​​this isolated population to Bolivia, although he did not rule out that it could possibly also occur in the very south of Peru.

literature

  • Steven L. Hilty , William L. Brown: A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press, 1986, ISBN 978-0691083728 , p. 292.
  • Thomas Schulenberg, Douglas F. Stotz, Daniel F. Lane: Birds of Peru , Princeton University Press, 2007, p. 246, ISBN 978-0-691-04915-1
  • Robert S. Ridgely, Paul J. Greenfield: Birds of Ecuador Field Guide , Vol. 1, Cornell University Press, 2001, p. 379, ISBN 978-0-8014-8720-0
  • Robert S. Ridgely, Paul J. Greenfield: Birds of Ecuador Field Guide , Vol. 2, Cornell University Press, 2001, pp. 255f, ISBN 978-0-8014-8721-7
  • Rodolphe Meyer de Schauensee, William H. Phelps , Guy Tudor: A Guide to the Birds of Venezuela. Princeton University Press, 1992, p. 153 ISBN 978-0691082059
  • James A. Jobling: Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4 .
  • Auguste Boissonneau: Nouvelles espèces d'Oiseaux-Mouches de Santa-Fé de Bogota . In: Revue Zoologique par La Société Cuvierienne . tape 2 , 1839, p. 354–356 ( online [accessed May 23, 2014]).
  • Melbourne Armstrong Carriker, Jr: Descriptions of New Birds from Bolivia, with Notes on Other Little-Known Species . In: Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia . tape 87 , 1935, pp. 313–341 ( online [accessed May 23, 2014]).
  • Eugène Simon: Histoire naturelle des Trochilid (Synopsis et catalog) . Encyclopédie Robert, L. Mulo, Libraire-Éditeur, Paris 1921 ( online [accessed 23 May 2014]).
  • Karl-Ludwig Schuchmann : Two hummingbird species, one a new subspecies, new to Bolivia . In: Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club . tape 104 , 1984, pp. 5-7 ( online [accessed May 23, 2014]).
  • Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte: Conspectus generum avium . tape 1 . EJ Brill, Leiden 1850 ( online [accessed May 23, 2014]).
  • John Todd Zimmer: Studies of Peruvian birds. No. 62, The hummingbird genera Patagona, Sappho, Polyonymus, Ramphomicron, Metallura, Chalcostigma, Taphrolesbia, and Aglaiocercus . In: American Museum novitates . No. 1595 , 1952, pp. 1–30 ( online [PDF; accessed on May 23, 2014]). (English; PDF; 2.452 MB)

Web links

Commons : Velvet-bellied Hummingbird ( Ramphomicron microrhynchum )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ IOC World Bird List Hummingbirds
  2. ↑ a b Auguste Boissonneau, p. 354
  3. ↑ Eugène Simon, pp. 199 & 379
  4. ↑ a b Melbourne Armstrong Carriker, Jr, p. 349
  5. ↑ a b Karl-Ludwig Schuchmann, p. 7
  6. ↑ John Todd Zimmer, p. 6
  7. ^ Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, p. 79
  8. ↑ James A. Jobling, p. 331
  9. ↑ James A. Jobling, p. 254
  10. ↑ James A. Jobling, p. 47
  11. ↑ James A. Jobling, p. 39