White-tailed Starfrontlet

White-tailed Hummingbird Andes, painted by Louis Agassiz Fuertes.

The Andean white-tailed Hummingbird ( Coeligena phalerata ) is a sailor bird in the family of hummingbirds ( Trochilidae ). It is endemic in the South American country of Colombia. The stock is classified by the IUCN as endangered not (Least Concern ).

Features

The White-tailed Hummingbird Andean reaches a body length of about 11 centimeters, the straight narrow beak is 3 inches long. The upper side of the male is mostly dark green. The crown sparkles green, light blue in the back. The bottom green shimmers. A Raisin in the lower part of the throat glistens purple. The under tail-coverts and the rounded tail are white, the tail may have dark bronze-colored spikes that are completely white with age. The female is green gloss on the top. The dark vertex is colored blue-green. The underside acts cinnamon to reddish brown, with more or less green, round spots on the side. The dark bronze colored tail has small, narrow and bright tips on the outer feathers.

Behavior

You can see the birds usually only briefly flying around in the lower scrub. They are territorial and very aggressive. From observations it appears that they, inter alia, Fuchsias fly. While foraging they chirp striking. The incubation period is probably from February to April.

Distribution and habitat

Usually they are found in moist mountain forests and bushy forest edges at altitudes of 1400-3300 meters in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. While the males small clearings and the forest denser prefer that females are more often found on forest edges. You fly regularly to rather larger flowers. Observations showed that they (May to September) in the area around Cuchilla de San Lorenzo are much more rare at the beginning of the rainy season, as usual.

Etymology and History of Research

From May to June 1898 collected Wilmot Wood Brown, Jr. in the mountains of Santa Marta Skins, which he sent to Outram Bangs. On 17 June 1898 Brown collected the type specimen of the White-tailed Andean hummingbirds, which bangs under the name Leucuria phalerata first described. Only later the species was included in the genus Coeligena.

» Coeligena " comes from Latin and is composed of the words " coelum " for " heaven " and " genus " for " descendant " together. » Phalerata " comes from the Latin word " phaleratus " and means " decorated with commemorative coins ," which was probably inspired by the shimmering picture of the kind.