Scintillant Hummingbird

Taxobox
name = Scintillant Hummingbird
status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1


image_width = 250px
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Trochiliformes
familia = Trochilidae
genus = "Selasphorus"
species = "S. scintilla"
binomial = "Selasphorus scintilla"
binomial_authority = (Gould, 1851)

The Scintillant Hummingbird ("Selasphorus scintilla") is the smallest hummingbird within its range, which includes only the mountains of Costa Rica and western Panama.

This tiny bird inhabits brushy forest edges, coffee plantations and sometimes gardens at altitudes from 900-2000 m, and up to 2500 m when not breeding. It is only 6.5 cm long. The male weighs 2 g and the female 2.3 g. The black bill is short and straight.

The adult male Scintillant Hummingbird has bronze-green upperparts and a rufous and black-striped tail. The throat is brilliant red, separated from the cinnamon underparts by a white neck band. The female is similar, but her throat is buff and the underparts are richer rufous. Young birds resemble the female but have rufous fringes to the upperpart plumage. The female Scintillant Hummingbird is entirely responsible for nest building and incubation. She lays two white eggs in her tiny plant-floss cup nest 1-4 m high in a scrub. Incubation takes 15-19 days, and fledging another 20-26.

The food of this species is nectar, taken from a variety of small flowers, including "Salvia" and species normally pollinated by insects. Like other hummingbirds it also takes some small insects as an essential source of protein. In the breeding season Scintillant Hummingbird males perch conspicuously in open areas with "Salvia" and defend their feeding territories aggressively with diving displays. The call of this rather quiet species is a liquid "tsip".

This species is replaced at higher elevations by its relative, the Volcano Hummingbird, "Selasphorus flammula".

References

* 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

External links

* [http://www.zeledonia.org/galeria/fotos/Selasphorus_scintillaM.jpgScintillant Hummingbird photo] ; [http://www.zeledonia.org/galeria/trochilidae.html Article]
* [http://www.bildungsservice.at/faecher/geo/Staaten%20und%20Landschaften/Costa%20Rica/Costa%20Rica%202004%20-%2000240%20-%20Scintilant%20Hummingbird.jpgScintillant Hummingbird photo] ; [http://www.bildungsservice.at/faecher/geo/Staaten%20und%20Landschaften/Costa%20Rica/photogalerie%20costa%20rica%2007.htm Article]
* [http://ibc.hbw.com/ibc/phtml/especie.phtml?idEspecie=3300 Scintillant Hummingbird videos] on the Internet Bird Collection