Marvellous Spatuletail
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| Loddigesia mirabilis (Bourcier, 1847) |
The Marvellous Spatuletail, Loddigesia mirabilis is a medium-sized, up to 15cm long, white, green and bronze hummingbird adorned with blue crest feathers, brilliant turquoise gorget and black line on its white underparts feathers. It is the only member of monotypic genus Loddigesia.
A Peruvian endemic, this species is distributed to the forest edge of Rio Utcubamba. The Marvellous Spatuletail was discovered in 1835 by bird collector Andrew Matthews for George Loddiges.
The Marvellous Spatuletail is unique among birds, for it is the only bird that has just four feathers in its tail. This hummingbird's most remarkable feature is the male's two long outer racquet-shaped tail feathers that cross each other and ended in large violet-blue discs, the Spatules. He can also move them independently.
Due to ongoing habitat loss, small population size and limited range, the Marvellous Spatuletail is evaluated as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is listed on Appendix II of CITES.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Loddigesia mirabilis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is endangered
