Saw-billed Hermit

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iSaw-billed Hermit

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Aves
Order:	Trochiliformes
Family:	Trochilidae
Genus:	Ramphodon Lesson, 1830
Species:	R. naevius

Binomial name

Ramphodon naevius
(Dumont, 1818)

Synonyms

Trochilus naevius Dumont, 1818

The Saw-billed Hermit (Ramphodon naevius) is a hummingbird from southeastern Brazil, the only member of the genus Ramphodon. It is around 14-16 cm long and is one of the heaviest of the hermits; its straight bill has a hooked tip. It lives in humid forests, where it aggressively defends feeding routes ("trap-lines") from individuals of its own species as well as other hummingbirds. It is currently considered near-threatened, since it has a restricted range in threatened Atlantic forests.

The Saw-billed Hermit is placed in the hermit subfamily Phaethornithinae, but among these birds, it is the species most similar to the typical humingbirds, Trochilinae (Hinkelmann, 1999). This, coupled with the considerable number of autapomorphies such as the unusual bill, suggest it is the most primitive species of the hermit lineage; a situation paralleled by the equally unusual Tooth-billed Hummingbird in the Trochilinae.

[edit] References

BirdLife International (2004). Ramphodon naevius. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is near threatened.

Hinkelmann, C. (1999): 1. Saw-billed Hermit. In: del Hoyo, J.; Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. (editors) (1999): Handbook of Birds of the World, Volume 5: Barn-owls to Hummingbirds: 537, plate 45. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. ISBN 84-87334-25-3