Green-crowned Brilliant

Taxobox
name = Green-crowned Brilliant

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image_width = 240px
image_caption = Male at feeder
status = LC
status_system = iucn3.1
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Apodiformes
familia = Trochilidae
genus = "Heliodoxa"
species = "H. jacula"
binomial = "Heliodoxa jacula"
binomial_authority = (Gould, 1850)

The Green-crowned Brilliant ("Heliodoxa jacula") is a large robust hummingbird that is a resident breeder in the highlands from Costa Rica to western Ecuador.

This hummingbird inhabits wet mountain forests including edges, gaps and tall second growth. It occurs typically between 700 m and 2000 m in altitude, mainly on the Caribbean slopes.

The nest is a bulky cup of plant fibres and scales of tree ferns saddled on a thin downsloping branch. The female alone incubates the two white 16.5 mm by 11 mm eggs ref| Sánchez et al.

The male Green-crowned Brilliant is 13 cm long and weighs 9.5 g. It is mainly bronze-green with a glittering green crown, forehead, throat and breast. It has a white spot behind the eye, a small violet throat patch, white thighs, and a deeply forked blue-black tail.

The female is 12 cm long and weighs 8 g. She differs from the male in that she has green-spotted white underparts, a white spot behind the eye and a white stripe below the eye, and a white-cornered shallowly-forked black tail.. Young birds resemble the adult of the same sex, but are duller, bronze-tinged below and have buff throats.The Green-crowned Brilliant has a loud squeaky "kyew" call.

This hummingbird feeds at the large inflorescences of "Marcgravia " vines, which the male will sometimes defend. It will also feed at "Heliconia" and other large flowers. Unlike many hummingbirds, the Green-crowned Brilliant almost always perches to feed.

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