Kalpana Kalpana (Editor)

Scintillant hummingbird

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Kingdom
  
Animalia

Order
  
Trochiliformes

Genus
  
Selasphorus

Higher classification
  
Selasphorus

Phylum
  
Chordata

Family
  
Trochilidae

Scientific name
  
Selasphorus scintilla

Rank
  
Species

Scintillant hummingbird Birds in Focus Scintillant Hummingbird

Similar
  
Bird, Hummingbird, Selasphorus, Volcano hummingbird, White‑throated mountaingem

Scintillant hummingbird


The scintillant hummingbird (Selasphorus scintilla) is the smallest hummingbird within its range, which includes only the mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama.

Contents

Scintillant hummingbird Scintillant hummingbird is 10th hummer for San Antonio Birds for Beer

This tiny bird inhabits brushy forest edges, coffee plantations and sometimes gardens at altitudes from 900–2,000 m (3,000–6,600 ft), and up to 2,500 m (8,200 ft) when not breeding. It is only 6.5–8 cm (2.6–3.1 in) long, including the bill. The male weighs 2 g (0.071 oz) and the female 2.3 g (0.081 oz). This is one of the smallest birds in existence, marginally larger than the bee hummingbird. The black bill is short and straight.

Scintillant hummingbird 1000 images about Beautiful Scintillant Hummingbird Photography on

The adult male scintillant hummingbird has bronze-green upperparts and a rufous and black-striped tail. The throat is brilliant red, separated from the cinnamon underparts by a white neck band. The female is similar, but her throat is buff with small green spots and the flanks are richer rufous. Young birds resemble the female but have rufous fringes to the upperpart plumage.

The female scintillant hummingbird is entirely responsible for nest building and incubation. She lays two white eggs in her tiny plant-floss cup nest 1–4 m (3 ft 3 in–13 ft 1 in) high in a scrub. Incubation takes 15–19 days, and fledging another 20–26.

The food of this species is nectar, taken from a variety of small flowers, including Salvia and species normally pollinated by insects. Like other hummingbirds it also takes some small insects as an essential source of protein. In the breeding season, scintillant hummingbird males perch conspicuously in open areas with Salvia and defend their feeding territories aggressively with diving displays. The call of this rather quiet species is a liquid tsip.

This species is replaced at higher elevations by its relative, the volcano hummingbird, Selasphorus flammula.

Scintillant hummingbird


References

Scintillant hummingbird Wikipedia