| Magnificent Hummingbird | |
|---|---|
| Male | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Apodiformes |
| Family: | Trochilidae |
| Genus: | Eugenes Gould, 1856 |
| Species: | E. fulgens |
| Binomial name | |
| Eugenes fulgens (Swainson, 1827) |
|
The Magnificent Hummingbird (Eugenes fulgens) is a large hummingbird that breeds in mountains from the southwestern United States to western Panama. It is the only member of the genus Eugenes, although the northern, nominate subspecies E. fulgens fulgens has on occasion been separated from the larger, southern race of Costa Rica and Panama, E. fulgens spectabilis,[2] as Rivoli's Hummingbird.
This bird inhabits the edges and clearings of montane oak forests from about 2000 meters to the timberline. It is 13 centimeters long. The male weighs 10 grams and the female 8.5. The black bill is long and straight to slightly curved. Both sexes look very dark unless the sun catches the iridescence of the plumage and the brilliant colors flash in the sunlight.
The adult male is green-bronze dorsally, becoming more bronzed on the black-tipped tail. The crown is violet, the throat gorget bright blue-green, and the rest of the head black apart from a white spot behind the eye. The chest is green-bronze and the belly greyish.
The female Magnificent Hummingbird is bronze-green dorsally and has a dull grey ventral coloring. There is a white stripe behind her eye. Immature birds are like the female, but darker and browner.
The female is entirely responsible for nest building and incubation. She lays two white eggs in her bulky cup nest about 3 meters up near the tip of a descending branch stem. Incubation takes 15–19 days, and fledging another 20–26.
The food of this species is nectar, taken from a variety of flowers, and some small insects. Magnificent Hummingbird males perch conspicuously and defend their feeding territories aggressively. The call of this species is a guttural drrrk.
