Honduran Emerald

Honduras Amazilie ( Amasilia luciae )

The Honduras - Amazilie ( Amasilia luciae ) earlier ( Polyerata luciae ) is a rare hummingbird of the genus Amasilia Hummingbirds. Their occurrence is limited to a very small area of ​​distribution in Honduras.

Description

The Honduras - Amazilie reaches a length of nine to ten centimeters. The male has a medium sized straight beak. The upper beak and the beak is blackish, the lower mandible reddish. The top is green gold. The tail-coverts have a bronze green approach. The throat and chest are glistening turquoise -green to blue-green. The flanks are green, the abdominal center is grayish. The coverts are whitish at the edges and brownish in the middle. The slightly forked tail is bright bronze green with a purplish black Subterminalband on the outer feathers. In the female, the throat is more greyish areas and the turquoise color is paler. The outer feathers have gray tips. The immature birds resemble the females. When you have the tail feathers tawny peaks.

Habitat

The Honduras - Amazilie inhabits dry thorn forests and scrub at altitudes 75-1220 m. The thorn forest at Coyoles is about six to ten feet high and is dominated by cactus, spurge and mimosa plants.

Way of life

The Honduras - Amazilie feeds on the nectar of various flowers, including the genera Pithecellobium, Aechmea, Pedilanthus and Stenocereus. Furthermore, it catches insects in flight. Breeding hummingbirds were observed in June. The clutch consists of two eggs.

Status

The Honduras - Amazilie was twice as lost. Once 1867-1937 and then partitioned between 1950 and 1988. Till then only 11 museum specimens of six different sites from Santa Bárbara, cofradía, the Guayape Valley and Catacamas had become known. In June 1988, the species was rediscovered in Olanchito and Coyoles in the upper valley of the River in the department of Yoro Aguán. 1991 22 to 28 specimens were observed in Olanchito. 1996, a population of northeast Gualaco in a less than 1 km ² area was discovered extensive area in Agalta Valley. From the regions at Santa Bárbara, cofradía and Guayape Valley the Honduras - Amazilie is gone. The thorn forest was replaced by pasture and the few extremely dry thorn forest fragments have only a few birds habitat. Today there are between 250 and 1000 copies in the thorn forests of the Río - Aguán Valley and in Agalta Valley. These habitats are threatened by conversion to rice and pineapple plantations.