Slender Sheartail
Doricha enicura
Small hummingbird of scrubby forests and overgrown clearings in the mountains of Chiapas and south to southern Honduras. Feeds quietly at all levels and is easily overlooked. Note the long arched bill; distinct from other small hummingbirds in its range. Spectacular male has very long blackish tail (forked, but usually held closed in a point) and green-and-purple throat (usually looks dark). Female is buffy below.
Identification
The male slender sheartail is 11 to 12.5 cm (4.3 to 4.9 in) long and weighs about 2.3 g (0.081 oz). Females are 8 to 9 cm (3.1 to 3.5 in) long and weigh about 2.6 g (0.092 oz). Both sexes have a long, decurved, black bill and a white spot behind the eye. The male's head, upperparts, and sides of the belly are green. Its gorget is pinkish purple and the chest and center of the belly white. The very long tail is deeply forked. The central pair of feathers are green and the others blackish. The female's upperparts are green and the underparts cinnamon-buff. It has a blackish stripe through the eye. Its tail is much shorter and less forked than the male's; its central pair of feathers are green and the others cinnamon with a wide black band near the tip and white tips.
Taxonomy
The slender sheartail shares genus Doricha with the Mexican sheartail (D. eliza). It is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Doricha enicura
- Authority
- (Vieillot, 1818)
- Order
- Apodiformes
- Family
- Trochilidae
- Genus
- Doricha
Range and habitat
The slender sheartail is found in mountains and their interior valleys from Chiapas in southern Mexico through Guatemala and northeastern El Salvador into Honduras. It inhabits semi-open landscapes such as forest openings, woodland, secondary forest, and scrublands. In elevation it ranges between 1,000 and 3,000 m (3,300 and 9,800 ft).
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The slender sheartail is generally sedentary though there are seasonal changes in abundance.<p>The slender sheartail forages for nectar and small arthropods from ground level to the middle strata of the vegetation. While feeding on nectar, males hold their tails nearly vertical while females wag and open and close theirs.<p>The slender sheartail has been documented breeding in October in Chiapas, but nothing else is known about its breeding phenology.<p>The slender sheartail's vocalizations are poorly known and have seldom been recorded. It does make "fairly hard, rapid chips" while perched or feeding.
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Red-crowned Woodpecker
Melanerpes rubricapillus
Medium-sized woodpecker found from Costa Rica to northern South America. Pale buffy overall with a red nape and belly and black-and-white barring on the back. Female has a pale crown with restricted red on the back of the nape; male has red extending to top of crown. Common in open woodlands, second growth, and gardens. Distinctive in range, but hybridizes extensively with Hoffmann’s Woodpecker on the Pacific slope in Costa Rica. Hybrids usually show orange nape and belly.
Black-and-rufous Swallow
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Hume's Treecreeper
Certhia manipurensis
Physically almost identical to Sikkim Treecreeper, but throat pale tan-orange instead gray. Bright contrasting rusty tail distinguishes it from other treecreepers in its range. A species of foothill to montane and submontane regions; averages lower in elevational range than Sikkim Treecreeper, with minimal to no range overlap. Favors broadleaf evergreen and mixed forests. Occasionally found in mixed-species flocks. Song is slower than that of Sikkim Treecreeper, a rather slow ringing trill composed of paired notes; calls include an echoing two-note “tsijew” and a high “tzit.”
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