Red-billed Streamertail
Trochilus polytmus
This long-tailed beauty is Jamaica’s national bird along with Black-billed Streamertail, which is now considered a separate species. Male has a glittering green body, black crown, and red bill; younger males and molting birds may not have the signature tail streamers, giving them a somewhat different look. Female lacks the long tail and is similar to Black-billed Streamertail, but usually shows a pink tinge to the base of the lower part of her bill. Her relatively large size and longer bill help separate her from Vervain Hummingbird. Found in forest in most of the island except for the far east, where it is replaced by Black-billed Streamertail, and readily comes to feeders. Local names for this species include “doctor bird” and “swallow tail humming bird”.
Identification
The male red-billed streamertail is 22 to 25 cm (8.7 to 9.8 in) long including the 10 to 13 cm (3.9 to 5.1 in) tail streamers and weighs 4.0 to 6.5 g (0.14 to 0.23 oz). The female is about 10.5 cm (4.1 in) long and weighs 3.0 to 6.1 g (0.11 to 0.22 oz). The adult male has a coral red bill with a black tip. It has a dull black to blue-black crown; it and the nape form a deep velvety black crest. The rest of its upperparts are bright metallic green. Its tail is black with a green to bronzy green gloss. The next to outermost pair of tail feathers is very long, giving the species its English name. The male's face and most of its underparts are metallic yellowish green; the undertail coverts are blue-black or black with a bluish gloss. The adult female's bill is a duller red than the male's. Its upperparts are metallic bronze green to greenish bronze that is duller on the crown. Its tail lacks the male's streamers. Its central pair of feathers are bright bronze green and the rest black with some bronze green gloss, and the outermost two pairs have wide white tips. Its underparts are white with metallic bronze green spots on the breast and flanks. Immature males are similar to the adult but lack the tail streamers; its tail feathers have bronze green tips.
Taxonomy
The red-billed streamertail was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Trochilus polytmus. Linnaeus quoted the description in Latin by the Irish physician Patrick Browne in his The Civil and Natural History of Jamaica which had been published two years earlier in 1756. The specific epithet polytmus is from the Ancient Greek polutimos meaning "costly" or "valuable". <p>The International Ornithological Committee (IOC), BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World, and the Clements taxonomy treat the red-billed streamertail and black-billed streamertail (T. scitulus) as separate species. However, the North American Classification Committee of the American Ornithological Society calls T. polytmus "streamertail" and assign the red-billed and black-billed forms to it as subspecies. The two species (or subspecies) interbreed in their narrow contact zone.<p>The species as defined by the IOC is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
- Scientific name
- Trochilus polytmus
- Authority
- Linnaeus, 1758
- Order
- Apodiformes
- Family
- Trochilidae
- Genus
- Trochilus
Range and habitat
The red-billed streamertail is found throughout Jamaica except in the extreme eastern end, where the black-billed is found. It inhabits evergreen montane forest, lowland tropical forest, and secondary forest. It shuns mangroves and arid highlands. In elevation it ranges from sea level to 1,500 m (4,900 ft); it is considered fairly common in the lowlands and abundant at middle and higher elevations.
- Migration
- Vertical migration
Behavior
Migration pattern: Vertical migration.
Conservation
- Population trend
- unknown
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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Lemon-rumped Warbler
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Small leaf warbler with many extremely similar relatives. Like other “Pallas’s-type” leaf warblers, has olive-yellow upperparts, pale underparts, prominent brow and crown stripes, double wingbars, and a pale rump. Unlike Ashy-throated and Buff-barred Warblers, lacks any white on outer tail edges. Pallas’s averages yellower-headed and brighter overall. Gansu and Chinese Leaf Warblers can be incredibly similar, but Lemon-rumped averages whiter-browed and yellower-bellied than the former, more contrastingly-marked on the head than the latter, and darker-billed than both. As with many other physically similar leaf warblers, best distinguished by voice and habitat. Breeds in coniferous and mixed forests at mid- to high-elevation forests, though may descend into foothills in the winter. Two song types are both highly distinctive; one is a buzzy, descending rattling trill and the other is a series of high-pitched clicking twitters. Call is a loud, strident pair of notes: “pse-tew!”
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