Longuemare's Sunangel

Taxobox
name = Longuemare's Sunangel
status =
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Aves
ordo = Apodiformes
familia = Trochilidae
genus = "Heliangelus"
species = "H. clarisse"
binomial = "Heliangelus clarisse"
binomial_authority = Longuemare, 1841

Longuemare's Sunangel ("Heliangelus clarisse") is a species of hummingbird found in Venezuela and northeastern Colombia.cite book | last = Hilty | first = Steven L. | year = 2003 | title = Birds of Venezuela | publisher = Princeton University Press | pages = p. 426 | id = ISBN 0-691-09250-8 | url = http://www.amazon.com/dp/0691092508/ | accessdate = 2007-10-06] It is closely related to the Amethyst-throated Sunangel, and species limits in this complex are unclear.Citation | last = Stiles | first = Gary | title = Split Heliangelus clarisse from H. amethysticollis | date = November, 2004 | url = http://www.museum.lsu.edu/~remsen/SACCprop142.html | accessdate = 2007-10-07. A proposal to continue to consider this species part of "H. amethysticollis" pending further study, with unanimous agreement from six other ornithologists.]

Range and habitat

As defined here following the "Handbook of the Birds of the World", [Citation | last = Schuchmann | first = K. L. | year = 1999 | chapter = Family Trochilidae (Hummingbirds) | pages = 468–680 | editor = del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A. and Sargatal, J. (editors) | title = Handbook of Birds of the World, Volume 5: Barn-owls to Hummingbirds | publisher = Lynx Edicions | location = Barcelona | ISBN = 84-87334-25-3] this species comprises four subspecies: "H. c. clarisse" in the Colombian Andes from Norte de Santander to the latitude of Bogotá; "violiceps" in the Sierra de Perijá (only in Zulia in Venezuela); "H. c. verdiscutus" in southeastern Norte de Santander, Colombia, and southern Táchira, Venezuela; and "H. c. spencei" isolated in Mérida, Venezuela.cite book | last = Hilty | first = Steven L. | coauthors = Brown, William L. | year = 1986 | title = A Guide to the Birds of Colombia | publisher = Princeton University Press | id = ISBN 0-691-08371-1 | pages = p. 66 | url = http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN069108372X | accessdate = 2007-10-06]

It inhabits forests, especially edges and openings, as well as brushy pastures and damp ravines with bushes; "spencei" prefers forest interiors. Its altitude range is 1800 to 3100 meters.

Three of the subspecies are common, "spencei" much less so.

Description

This species is 9.4 cm (3.7 inches) long (not including the bill) and weighs 5.3 grams, on average. The bill is short for a hummingbird—1.8 cm or 0.7 in long. The overall impression is of dark plumage.

Males are dark green above except that the crown is velvety black in "verdiscutus" and "spencei", purplish in "violiceps", and dull green in "clarisse". They have a narrow, glittering blue "frontlet" above the bill. Behind the eye is a bold white spot. They have a glittering pinkish-purple throat above a white crescent crossing the chest, which in turn has a green lower border—glittering in "violiceps" and "verdiscutus", shining in "spencei". The rest of the breast and belly is shining dark green mixed with gray. The undertail coverts are white except in "spencei", where they are buff. The tail is long and broad, bronze-green to blackish, with tiny white tips on the two outer feathers.Females resemble males but are duller, and white feather bases may show in the throat.

Vocalizations are little-known. Foraging "spencei" individuals give a "short, low-pitched, cricketlike trill" very similar to a call of the Orange-throated Sunangel. Among the vocalizations of "verdiscutus" is "a single, upward-inflected "tsit" repeated about every half-second.

Behavior

Longuemare's Sunangel generally flies and perches fairly low. Along forest edges with rich patches of flowers such as "Psammisia" and similar plants of the heath family, it behaves territorially. However, within forests, it flies along "trap-lines" from one flowering vine, epiphyte, or shrub (such as "Palicourea") to the next. It feeds on nectar by hovering in front of flowers or clinging. In addition, it occasionally catches airborne insects in short flights. It feeds actively in the midst of mixed-species flocks when they pass.

Reproduction

Birds have been found in breeding condition from May to August. One nest of "spencei" was a downy cup on a small root exposed by an overhanging roadbank.

Classification

Originally "spencei" was described as a separate species and the other three species were considered subspecies of the Amethyst-throated Sunangel, whose undoubted populations live in Ecuador and Peru. Other arrangements have been suggested, and many authorities lump all of these groups with the Amethyst-throated. [Citation | author = IUCN | year = 2007 | title = 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species | url = http://www.iucnredlist.org/search/search.php?freetext=Heliangelus&modifier=phrase&criteria=wholedb&taxa_species=1&redlistCategory%5B%5D=all&country%5B%5D=all&cty_default=1&aquatic%5B%5D=all&aqu_default=1&regions%5B%5D=all&reg_default=1&habitats%5B%5D=all&threats%5B%5D=all&redlistAssessyear%5B%5D=all&growths%5B%5D=all | accessdate = 2007-10-07] A review by the American Ornithologists' Union's South American Check-list Committee stated that the situation is unclear and any decision is arbitrary until more data are available.

References