| White-eared Hummingbird | |
|---|---|
| Basilinna leucotis | |
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Trochiliformes |
| Family: | Trochilidae |
| Genus: | Basilinna |
| Binomial name | |
| Basilinna leucotis Vieillot, 1818) |
|
The White-eared Hummingbird, Basilinna leucotis (syn. Hylocharis leucotis), is a medium-sized hummingbird. It is 9-10 cm long, and weighs approximately 3-4 g.
Adults are colored predominantly green on their upperparts and breast. The undertail coverts are predominately white. The tail is darkly colored and straight. The most predomient feature is the white eyestripe found in both males and females. It is more boldly colored in the male. The bill of the male is straight and very slender. It is red in coloration, and shows a black tip. His throat is a metallic torquoise green. His crown and face is violet and black. The female is less colorful than the male.
The breeding habitat is in pine oak forests from northern Mexico through New Mexico to Texas to Sierra Madre Occidental, Sierra Madre Oriental, and Cordillera Neovolcanica, also the southern Mexico ranges to southern Nicaragua. It will regularly stray to the White Mountains, the Mogollon Rim, and the Madrean sky islands, as well as the adjoining regions of western and southwestern New Mexico in the United States. It occasionally is found eastwards to west Texas.
These birds feed on nectar from flowers and flowering trees using a long extendable tongue or catch insects on the wing.
