Colorful Puffleg
Eriocnemis mirabilis
Rare hummingbird known only from a tiny area of Colombia’s western Andes west of Popayán. Adult male is iridescent green with a blue belly, red vent, and white leg puffs. Female and young male are duller and often look all dark in the field apart from the leg puffs and white spot behind eye. Inhabits relatively undisturbed cloud forest and usually feeds at low levels.
Identification
The colorful puffleg is about 8 to 9 cm (3.1 to 3.5 in) long. It has a straight blackish bill. The male has dark shining green upperparts with a glittering green forehead. It has an iridescent green gorget and upper breast, a glittering indigo blue belly, and glittering red and copper undertail coverts. The tail is forked; it is dark bronzy green above and shining golden bronzy green below. The female has mostly white underparts with green dots on the sides of the throat and the breast and reddish bronze spots on the flanks and the sides of the belly. Both sex's leg puffs are white with cinnamon tips, though the female's are smaller than the male's.
Taxonomy
The colorful puffleg is monotypic. It is closely related to the emerald-bellied puffleg (E. aline) and they have variously been deemed sister species or a superspecies. However, one author has suggested that because their plumage is so different from that of other Eriocnemis pufflegs that they should have their own genus.
- Scientific name
- Eriocnemis mirabilis
- Authority
- Meyer de Schauensee, 1967
- Order
- Apodiformes
- Family
- Trochilidae
- Genus
- Eriocnemis
Range and habitat
The colorful puffleg is known only from a few locations on the west slope of the Western Andes in Colombia's Cauca Department. Most observations have been in undisturbed cloud forest but it also occurs at the forest edge and in clearings. The plant communities are characterized by Colombian oak (Quercus humboldtii) and plants of genera Billia, Clusia, Persea, Hyeronima, and Weinmannia. The observations have been in the fairly narrow elevational range of 2,200 to 2,440 m (7,200 to 8,000 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The colorful puffleg is sedentary.<p>The colorful puffleg feeds mostly at levels between 2 and 4 m (7 and 10 ft) above the ground. It has been recorded feeding on nectar from Tillandsia delicatula, Clusia coremandra and other Clusia species, Anthopterus oliganthus, Cavendishia bracteata, Psammisia columbiensis, Besleria quadrangulata, Elleanthus aurantiacus, and Palicourea killipii.<p>Nothing is known about the colorful puffleg's breeding phenology.<p>As of early 2022, Cornell University's Macaulay Library had no recordings of colorful puffleg vocalization, and Xeno-canto had only three. What is thought to be its song is "a repeated single metallic short note 'tsit'".
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
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