Sooty-capped Hermit
Phaethornis augusti
Large, brownish hummingbird with a long tail. Pale gray below with strong facial markings and a contrasting rufous rump; broad white tail feather tips are a key field mark. Occurs in dry forest and along savanna edge, where it visits widely spaced nectar sources and is often seen moving rapidly between them. Notably curious and will often stop to assess a person before quickly moving on; amount of white in tail is especially evident as bird flies away. Males sing from low perches; song consists of two squeaking notes followed by three faster, higher-pitched ones, given in alternation, over and over. Flight call is a loud squeak, similar to other large hermits. Best told from Long-tailed and Great-billed hermits by paler, grayer coloration and extensive white in tail.
Identification
The sooty-capped hermit is about 14 to 15 cm (5.5 to 5.9 in) long. Males weigh 4.5 to 6 g (0.16 to 0.21 oz) and females 4 to 5 g (0.14 to 0.18 oz). They are mostly grayish brown above with a rufous rump and uppertail coverts. The next-to-inner tail feathers are longer than the others and all have white tips. Their underparts are gray. The face has a black "mask" with a white supercilium and gular stripe. The subspecies differ slightly in the intensity of the breast and uppertail covert colors and the size of the gular stripe. What was once thought to be a separate species P. fumosus was determined to be a melanistic morph of the nominate sooty-capped hermit.
Taxonomy
The sooty-capped hermit is closely related to the planalto hermit (P. pretrei) and may form a superspecies with it. Three subspecies of sooty-capped hermit are recognized, the nominate P. a. augusti, P. a. curiosus, and P. a incanescens. A fourth proposed subspecies P. a. vicarius, in the Colombian Andes, cannot be separated from the nominate.
- Scientific name
- Phaethornis augusti
- Authority
- (Bourcier, 1847)
- Order
- Apodiformes
- Family
- Trochilidae
- Genus
- Phaethornis
Range and habitat
Major taxonomic systems place the nominate subspecies of sooty-capped hermit in Venezuela's Coastal Range and eastern Andes and south on the eastern slope of Colombia's Eastern Andes; P. a. curiosus in the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta of northeastern Colombia; and P. a incanescens on the tepuis of southern Venezuela, western Guyana, and Brazil's Roraima state. The South American Classification Committee (SACC) of the American Ornithological Society places the species in those four countries and also French Guiana and Suriname.
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
Migration pattern: Resident species.
Conservation
Population trend: stable.
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
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