Black-chin hummingbird

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Black-chin hummingbird
Black-chin hummingbird (Archilochus alexandri), male

Black-chin hummingbird ( Archilochus alexandri ), male

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Sailor birds (Apodiformes)
Family : Hummingbirds (Trochilidae)
Genre : Archilochus
Type : Black-chin hummingbird
Scientific name
Archilochus alexandri
( Bourcier & Mulsant , 1846)

The black-chin hummingbird ( Archilochus alexandri ) is a bird from the hummingbird family (Trochilidae) found in North and Central America .

features

The black-chin hummingbird got its name from the black chin of the male whose head is also black. The black throat of the male sometimes shimmers metallic violet, depending on the incidence of light. The tail is dark brown. The rest of the plumage shows a more or less light or dark shimmering gray-brown to gray-green color, which in the female includes the entire plumage. The underside is lighter in color. The beak is long and straight. The length of the bird is nine to 9.5 centimeters, the weight on average 3.5 grams.

  • female

  • male

distribution and habitat

Distribution area of ​​the black-chin hummingbird

The distribution area of ​​the black-chin hummingbird stretches south from British Columbia across the western US states to Texas and northern Mexico . It prefers to live in light forests, savannahs rich in bushes and wooded mountain valleys.

Way of life

The black-chin hummingbird takes in its food primarily as flower nectar in the buzzing flight . Sometimes insects are also caught from the air. The nest of the black-chin hummingbird is created by the female in the bushes or on trees at heights between 1.5 and three meters. Occasionally it can be up to ten meters high. It is made from cobwebs , vegetable wool , lichen and moss . Mainly two eggs are laid, which are hatched by the female in 13 to 16 days. The young leave the nest after 20 to 21 days. Since the nests are sometimes robbed by nest robbers like the Mexican jay ( Aphelocoma wollweberi ), the hummingbirds have developed a strategy to protect their eggs and nestlings from the predators: They nest where the hawks breed. Since the jays avoid the proximity of these birds of prey, the hummingbirds can raise their young undisturbed.

  • Nestlings

  • Females on the nest

Danger

The black-chin hummingbird is not uncommon in its areas of distribution and is therefore classified by the IUCN as a LC IUCN 3 1st svg" least concern ". It is protected by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act .

Etymology and history of research

Jules Bourcier and Étienne Mulsant described the black-chin hummingbird under the name Trochilus Alexandri . The type specimen came from the Sierra Madre Occidental and was collected by the naturalist and doctor Alexandre . In 1854 Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach introduced the new generic name Archilochus for the black-chin hummingbird. With the naming, Reichenbach followed the tradition of Carl von Linné , Mathurin-Jacques Brisson and other authors who liked to use ancient philosophers, poets or people from Greek mythology for their names. Such was Archilochus a Greek poet from Paros . The specific epithet is dedicated to its relatively unknown discoverer.

literature

  • James A. Jobling: Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Christopher Helm, London 2010, ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4 .
  • Jules Bourcier, Étienne Mulsant: Description of the vingt espèces nouvelles d'oiseaux-mouches . In: Annales des sciences physiques et naturelles, d'agriculture et d'industrie . tape 9 , 1846, pp. 312-332 ( online [accessed March 7, 2016]).
  • Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach: Enumeration of the hummingbirds or trochilids in their true natural relationship with key to their synonymy . In: Journal of Ornithology . tape 2 , special issue, 1854, p. 1-24 ( online [accessed March 7, 2016]).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Distribution area
  2. ^ Guide to North American Birds
  3. ↑ Hummingbird Survival Strategy
  4. ^ Migratory Bird Treaty Act
  5. ↑ Jules Bourcier et al. a., p. 330.
  6. ↑ a b Jules Bourcier u. a., p. 332.
  7. ↑ Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach, p. 13.
  8. ↑ James A. Jobling, p. 53.

Web links

Commons : Black Chin Hummingbird  - Collection of images, videos, and audio files