Merida Sunangel
Heliangelus spencei
Medium-sized cloud forest hummingbird found only in the Venezuelan Andes near its namesake city. Male has a glittering violet throat, green forehead, and a white neck band. Female’s throat is mottled and mostly lacks iridescence. Distinguished from Orange-throated Sunangel by throat color, white (not orange) neck band, and green belly. Formerly considered a subspecies of Amethyst-throated Sunangel.
识别特征
The Merida sunangel is 10 to 11 cm (3.9 to 4.3 in) long. It has a straight black bill. The adult male has a pale blue frontlet just above the bill, a dark green crown, and shining green upperparts. The face has black ear coverts. Its throat and upper breast gorget is glittering purple with pinkish scales and has a white pectoral band below it. The rest of the underparts are yellowish to pale buff with round green spots. The central tail feathers are dark green and the outer feathers blackish, occasionally with pale tips. The adult female has less black on the face. Its throat is maroon with white and green scaling. Its underparts have fewer green spots than the male's and appears more yellowish. Juveniles are thought to resemble the female.
分类信息
The taxonomy of the Merida sunangel is not settled. The International Ornithological Committee (IOC), the Clements taxonomy, and BirdLife International's Handbook of the Birds of the World (HBW) treat it as a species. The South American Classification Committee (SACC) of the American Ornithological Society treats it as a subspecies of the amethyst-throated sunangel (H. amethysticollis).
- 学名
- Heliangelus spencei
- 命名信息
- (Bourcier, 1847)
- 目
- Apodiformes
- 科
- Trochilidae
- 属
- Heliangelus
分布与栖息地
The Merida sunangel is found only in the Andes of Mérida state in northwestern Venezuela. It inhabits rather open landscapes such as shrubby forest edges, openings within forest, and brushy pastures. In elevation it ranges between 2,000 and 3,600 m (6,600 and 11,800 ft).
- 迁徙
- Resident species
行为
The Merida sunangel is sedentary.<p>Little is known about the Merida sunangel's feeding habits and diet, but they are believed to essentially the same as those of its close relative, Longuemare's sunangel (H. clarisse). That species feeds on nectar and also includes insects in its diet. It defends feeding territories that are dense with nectar sources. It typically feeds at heights up to 6 m (20 ft), often along streams. It captures insects by hawking from a perch.<p>The only known Merida sunangel nest was found in June. It was a downy cup perched on a small root under an overhang in a road cut. It held two white eggs. Nothing else is known about the species' breeding phenology.<p>The Merida sunangel's call is "a repeated, high-pitched, cricket-like, short trill" that is given both while perched and in flight.
保护状况
- 种群趋势
- stable
照片
分布
鸟叫声
其他鸟类
Shining Sunbeam
Aglaeactis cupripennis
Large, dark-brown hummingbird with lilac-gold iridescent lower back and rump. Like other sunbeams, it has a proportionally short bill for a hummingbird. Inhabits high elevation, semi-arid montane ridges and cloud forests. You are my sunbeam, my Shining Sunbeam / You make me happy when you display / Aglaeactis cupripennis / Please don’t take my sunbeam away.
Red-breasted Chat
Granatellus venustus
Easily overlooked, warblerlike bird of tropical forest in lowlands and foothills of west Mexico and extreme western Guatemala. Hops around, mainly at low levels in tangled understory, often fanning and waving around its rather long, white-edged tail. Male is striking, with red breast and bold black-and-white head pattern. Female-plumaged birds are seen more often and can be puzzling, but note buffy face and breast with a dark beady eye, mostly grayish upperparts, and white-edged tail.
Orange-throated Longclaw
Macronyx capensis
A large ground-dwelling pipit-like bird. The upperparts are brown and cryptic, but the underparts are striking: the throat is deep orange, hemmed by a broad black necklace, and the belly is yellow. It has white-tipped tail feathers that make the tail distinctive in flight. Pairs occupy high-altitude and coastal grasslands and open pastures. The species is frequently located by its distinctive nasal “wheeeeah” call. Breeding Yellow-breasted Pipit resembles young Orange-throated Longclaw, but the pipit’s outer tail feathers are white, rather than white-tipped.
开始您的观鸟之旅
在户外识别鸟类，并在下一次观察时随手查阅鸟类图鉴。