Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
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 Male
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| Amazilia tzacatl (De la Llave, 1833) |
The Rufous-tailed Hummingbird (Amazilia tzacatl) is a medium-sized hummingbird which breeds from east-central Mexico, through Central America and Colombia, south to western Venezuela and western Ecuador.
This is a common to abundant bird of open country, river banks, woodland, scrub, forest edge, coffee plantations and gardens up to 1850 m (6000 ft).
The adult Rufous-tailed Hummingbird is 10-12 cm (4-4,8 in) long and weighs approx. 5.2 g (0,2 oz). The throat is green (edged whitish in the female), the crown, back and flanks are green tinged golden, the belly is pale greyish, the vent and rump are rufous and the slightly forked tail is rufous with a dusky tip. The almost straight bill is red with a black tip; broadest on the upper mandible, which may appear all black. Immatures are virtually identical to the female. The call is a low chut, and the male’s song is a whistled tse we ts’ we or tse tse wip tseek tse.
The female Rufous-tailed Hummingbird is entirely responsible for nest building and incubation. She lays two white eggs in a compact cup nest constructed from plant-fibre and dead leaves 1-6 m high on a thin horizontal twig. Incubation takes 15-19 days, and fledging another 20-26.
The food of this species is nectar, taken from a variety of flowers, including Heliconias and bananas. Like other hummingbirds it also takes small insects as an essential source of protein. Rufous-tailed Hummingbirds are very aggressive, and defend flowers and scrubs in their feeding territories. They are dominant over most other hummingbirds.
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Amazilia tzacatl. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 12 May 2006. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Stiles and Skutch, A guide to the birds of Costa Rica ISBN 0-8014-9600-4
- Hilty, Birds of Venezuela by, ISBN 0-7136-6418-5
[edit] External links
- Rufous-tailed Hummingbird videos on the Internet Bird Collection
Categories: Least Concern species | Trochilinae | Amazilia | Birds of Central America | Birds of Mexico | Birds of Guatemala | Birds of Nicaragua | Birds of Belize | Birds of Honduras | Birds of Costa Rica | Birds of Panama | Birds of South America | Birds of Colombia | Birds of Ecuador | Birds of Venezuela
