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
Scaly-throated Foliage-gleaner
Anabacerthia variegaticeps
Rather active, arboreal bird of humid evergreen forest in foothills and highlands. Forages at all levels clambering along branches and amid mossy tangles and epiphytes, at times hanging upside down like a chickadee. Often in pairs or small groups; frequently joins mixed-species feeding flocks. Note the behavior, grayish head with rich buffy spectacles, and pale buff throat (scaly markings often hard to see).
Buru Bush Warbler
Locustella disturbans
A sparrow-sized dark warbler with an often scruffy-looking, graduated tail. Has dark chestnut-brown upperparts, a whitish eyebrow, a distinct white throat, and dull grayish underparts. Formerly grouped with Buru Bush Warbler and Seram Bush Warbler under the name “Chestnut-backed Bush Warbler.” A secretive inhabitant of montane and foothill forest, often creeping around on or near the ground. Darker above and dingier below than Gray’s and Middendorff's Grasshopper-Warblers, and also has a clean-cut white throat; almost identical to Sulawesi and Seram Bush Warblers, but ranges do not overlap. Calls include a sharp metallic “chit” and a drawn-out, wavering buzzy note, “tzeeoooreee.” There is some variation in songs, which usually comprise three high-pitched buzzing notes, “tzeeee-tzeee-tzeee,” higher-pitched on the final note. Song includes a high, liquid-sounding “tzi-tzee”, as well as a longer, more repetitive “tzi-tzee, tzi-tzee, tzi-tzee.”
Makira Cicadabird
Edolisoma salomonis
Male is light powder-gray with darker wing feathers and tail and a dark patch in front of the eye. Female is powder-gray above and vivid reddish below. Prefers primary forest, and appears to avoid secondary growth and scrub. Common call is a loud “chi-beet” or “pity-you.”
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