Andean white-tailed hummingbird
| Andean white-tailed hummingbird | ||||||||||
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Andean white-tailed hummingbird painted by Louis Agassiz Fuertes . |
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| Coeligena phalerata | ||||||||||
| ( Bangs , 1898) |
The white-tailed Andean hummingbird ( Coeligena phalerata ) is a sailing bird in the hummingbird family (Trochilidae). It is endemic to the South American country of Colombia . The IUCN classifies the population as Least Concern .
features
The white-tailed Andean hummingbird reaches a body length of about 11 centimeters, with the straight, narrow beak becoming 3 centimeters long. The top of the male is predominantly dark green. The parting glitters green, in the rear area light blue. The underside shimmers green. A spot in the lower part of the throat glitters purple. The under tail-coverts and the rounded tail are white, whereby the tail can have dark bronze-colored tips that become completely white with age. The female is glossy green on top. The dark part is colored blue-green. The underside looks cinnamon to red-brown with more or less green, round spots on the side. The dark bronze-colored tail has small, narrow and light tips on the outer feathers.
behavior
You can usually only see the birds flying around briefly in the lower underbrush. They are territorial and very aggressive. Observations show that they u. a. Fly to fuchsias . They chirp noticeably while foraging. The breeding season is probably from February to April.
distribution and habitat
They are mostly found in moist mountain forests and on bushy forest edges at altitudes between 1400 and 3300 meters in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta . While the males prefer small clearings and the denser forest, the females are more often to be found at the edges of the forest. They regularly fly to larger flowers. Observations showed that at the beginning of the rainy season (May to September) in the area around Cuchilla de San Lorenzo they are significantly less common than usual.
Etymology and history of research
From May to June 1898, Wilmot Wood Brown Jr. (1868–1953) collected bird hides in the mountains of Santa Marta , which he sent to Outram Bangs. On June 17, 1898 Brown collected the type specimen of the white-tailed Andean hummingbird, which Bangs first described under the name Leucuria phalerata . Only later was the species included in the genus Coeligena .
"Coeligena" comes from Latin and is made up of the words "coelum" for "heaven" and "genus" for "descendant". "Phalerata" comes from the Latin word "phaleratus" and means something like "decorated with commemorative coins", which was probably inspired by the shimmering overall appearance of the species.
literature
- Jon Fjeldså , Niels Krabbe : Birds of the High Andes: A Manual to the Birds of the Temperate Zone of the Andes and Patagonia, South America . Apollo Books, Stenstrup 1990, ISBN 978-87-88757-16-3 .
- Steven Leon Hilty , William Leroy Brown : A guide to the birds of Colombia . Princeton University Press, Princeton 1986, ISBN 978-0-691-09250-8 .
- James A. Jobling: A Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1991, ISBN 978-0-19-854634-4 .
- Outram Bangs: On some birds from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia . In: Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington . tape 12 , 1898, pp. 171-182 ( online [accessed January 28, 2012]).
Web links
- Coeligena phalerata inthe IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010.4. Posted by: BirdLife International, 2009. Retrieved May 23, 2011 ..
- BirdLife International: Species Factsheet - White-tailed Starfrontlet ( Coeligena phalerata ) . Retrieved January 10, 2012.
- Videos, photos and sound recordings of White-tailed Starfrontlet (Coeligena phalerata) in the Internet Bird Collection
- Andean white-tailed hummingbird ( Coeligena phalerata ) at Avibase; Retrieved January 10, 2012.
- Coeligena phalerata in the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). Retrieved January 10, 2012.
- xeno-canto: Sound recordings - White-tailed Starfrontlet ( Coeligena phalerata )
- Andean white-tailed hummingbird (Coeligena phalerata) in the Encyclopedia of Life . Retrieved on August 24, 2017.