Purple-throated Mountain-gem
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| Purple-throated Mountain-gem | ||||||||||||||||||
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 Male at feeder
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| Lampornis calolaemus Salvin, 1865 |
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Lampornis calolaema (lapsus) |
The Purple-throated Mountain-gem (Lampornis calolaemus) is a hummingbird which breeds in the mountains of southern Nicaragua, northern Costa Rica and western Panama. This bird inhabits forested areas in hilly terrain, and is found at altitudes from 800 m to 2500 m.
It is replaced in southern Costa Rica by its close relatives, the White-throated and Gray-tailed Mountain-gems, with which it is sometimes considered conspecific. These three species form a closely-related group that evolved some 3.5 million years ago and has diversified since[1].
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[edit] Description
It is 10.5 cm long. The male weighs 6.0 g and the female 4.8 g. The shortish black bill is slightly curved.
The adult male has bronze-green upperparts and underparts except for a brilliant green crown, purple throat and dark grey tail. The female lacks the bright crown and throat, and has rich cinnamon underparts. Young birds resemble the female but have buff fringes to the upperparts plumage.
The call of this species is a sharp buzzy zeet.
[edit] Ecology
The food of this species is mainly nectar, taken from a variety of flowers[2]. For the Rubiaceae Psychotria elata and Palicourea lasiorrachis, it is the default pollinator[3]. Like other hummingbirds it also takes small insects as an essential source of protein. Male Purple-throated Mountain-gems defend flowers and scrubs in their feeding territories, and are dominant over most other hummingbirds.
Females have slightly longer bills than males. There is some degree of niche differentiation between the sexes. Though both prefer flowers with a corolla 14-21 mm long by 3.5-8 mm wide, females far more often than males utilize plants with longer[4] and thinner[5] corollas.
The female Purple-throated Mountain-gem is entirely responsible for nest building and incubation. She lays two white eggs in a deep plant-fibre cup nest 0.7-3.5 m high in a scrub, small tree or vine. Incubation takes 15-19 days, and fledging another 20-26.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ García-Moreno et al. (2006)
- ^ Namely Stenostephanus blepharorachis (Acanthaceae), Besleria formosa and Besleria triflora (Gesneriaceae), Palicourea lasiorrhachis and Psychotria elata (Rubiaceae). Other foodplants include assorted Alstroemeriaceae, Bromeliaceae, Campanulaceae, Ericaceae (e.g. Psammisia ramiflora), Heliconiaceae and Zingiberales. See Fenster (1991), Temeles et al. (2002).
- ^ Fenster (1991)
- ^ Up to c.40 mm, e.g. Guzmania nicaraguensis (Bromeliaceae): Temeles et al. (2002).
- ^ Up to c.20 times as long as wide, e.g. Dicliptera trifurca (Acanthaceae), Burmeistera tenuiflora (Campanulaceae): Temeles et al. (2002).
[edit] References
- BirdLife International (2004). Lampornis calolaemus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 27 April 2007. Database entry includes justification for why this species is of least concern
- Fenster, Charles B. (1991): Selection on Floral Morphology by Hummingbirds. Biotropica 23(1): 98-101. doi:10.2307/2388696 (First page image)
- García-Moreno, Jaime; Cortés, Nandadeví; García-Deras, Gabriela M. & Hernández-Baños, Blanca E. (2006): Local origin and diversification among Lampornis hummingbirds: A Mesoamerican taxon. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 38(2): 488–498. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.08.015 (HTML abstract)
- Stiles, F. Gary & Skutch, Alexander F. (1990): A guide to the birds of Costa Rica. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-9600-4
- Temeles, E.J.; Linhart, Y.B.; Masonjones, M. & Masonjones, H.D. (2002): The role of flower width in hummingbird bill length-flower length relationships. Biotropica 34(1): 68-80. doi:10.1111/j.1744-7429.2002.tb00243.x PDF fulltext
[edit] External links
- Purple-throated Mountain-gem photo; Article w/RangeMaps Infonatura NatureServe
- "Purple-throated Mountain-Gem" photo gallery VIREO
- Photo-High Res--(Male); Article nationalzoo.si.edu – "Smithsonian: Bird Photo Gallery"
