Bulletin 408 - Colombia 2022 #5 - Hummingbirds Part 3

 I was planning to go to Peru in 2022 but there were riots and road closures in the areas we were planning to go. So at the last minute I went back to Colombia and saw some other places. 

Unfortunately, there was a lot of overlap, so I did not get a lot of new birds on the trip. However, many areas now have set up feeding stations and several were built for photography. I used the same guide Pablo Florez and I had my daughter with me on the trip this year.

However on the bright side, the setups for photography and the number of places that had feeders allowed me to get many improved photos of birds I had not so good photos before.

The 4.3" female Golden-bellied Starfrontlet (Coeligena bonapartei) is a stuuning bird. The male has a solid green throat. This is an endemic bird with the January 2023 split of the Venezuela subspecies into a full species.

Golden-bellied Starfrontlet - female

The 3" male Purple-backed Thornbill (Ramphomocron microrhynchum) has a prurple back and head with green underparts.

Purple-backed Thornbill

The 3.5" Indigo-capped Hummingbird (Saucerottia cyanifrons) is another endemic to Colombia. The male here is bright green with a blue crown.

Indigo-capped Hummingbird - male

The 4.3" male Black-throated Mango (Anthracothorax nigricollis) has a black throat and chest outlined in blue. The rest of the bird is green but the tail is purple.

Black-throated Mango - male

The 3.5" male Crowned Woodnymph (Thalurania colombica) had a bright purple belly and a green throat. Unlike the Golden-bellied Starfrontlet above that was recently split into 2 species, this bird had 2 species - Green-crowned and Violet-crowned Woodnymphs - but they were lumped into just Crowned Woodnymph. 

Crowned Woodnymph - male

The 3.5" male Tourmaline Sunangel (Heliangelus exortis) is a green hummer with a pink throat.

Tourmaline Sunangel - male

The 3" female Tyrian Metaltail (Metallura tyrianthina) is a green hummer with a rusty orange throat. This subspecies have purple tails. The subspecies in the Santa Marta mountains which I photographed last year have blue tails. This is a possible future split.

Tyrian Metaltail - female

Lastly is everyone's favorite, the Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera). The ID is easy.

Sword-billed Hummingbird

I put the different bird/mammal families in single folders for easy viewing

I have photos of 147 of the 365 species of hummingbirds.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald

dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2023 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.

Bulletin 290 - Columbia #13 - Hummingbirds - part 2

Pablo Florez, the main guide, has co-written a book where to bird in Colombia. In it, he has a list of the Top 30 Most Sought-after Birds by a group of 40 birders visiting Colombia. I saw 12 of them on the trip and got photos of 10. When I show one of these birds,  I will mention its placement on the list.

This is the final bulletin of the amazing birds I saw, on my first trip to Colombia last fall. I started with hummingbirds and I will end with the rest of the hummers.

The 4.75" Sparkling Violetear (Colibri coruscans) is green with purple gorget. I had seen this bird before, but this was my best photo.

Sparkling Violetear

The 4" Mountain Velvetbreast (Lafresnaya lafresnayi) has a curved bill and white in the tail.. The male is green with a black breast and the female shown here has a spotted breast. I did not see a male.

Mountain Velvetbreast - female

The 4" Buff-tailed Coronet (Boissonneaua flavescens) is green with spotted belly and a buffy tail.

Buff-tailed Coronet

The 3.5" male Tourmaline Sunangel (Heliangelus exortis) is green with dark pink throat.

Tourmaline Sunangel - male

The 4.75" White-tailed Hillstar (Urochroa bougueri) is found close to fast moving streams and waterfalls. 

White-tailed Hillstar
.

The tiny 2.75" female Purple-throated Woodstar (Calliphlox mitchellii) is green on back and buffy orange below.

Purple-throated Woodstar - female

The 6" male Great Sapphirewing (Pterophanes cyanopterus) is a huge hummer with blue wings.

Great Sapphirewing - male

I have saved the best 2 for the end. The 5 species of thornbills are hummers with very short bills. This is the first I have seen. The 4" male Rainbow-bearded Thornbill (Chalcostigma herrani) is olive green with an orange forehead and crest and an amazing multicolored throat.

Rainbow-bearded Thornbill - male

The female is similar but lacks the multicolored beard.

Rainbow-bearded Thornbill - female

Lastly is the 4" Buffy Helmetcrest (Oxypogon steubelli). This is one of 4 species of Helmetcrest that live on the paramo on mountain tops. Until about 3 years ago, they were considered a single species, but have been split and each one lives on a different mountain. 3 are in Colombia and the other in western Venezuela, so the range is very limited for these birds. The presplit Helmetcrest is number 16 on the top 30 birds to see in Colombia.

Buffy Helmetcrest

Buffy Helmetcrest

We saw this bird on the Nevado del Ruiz volcano tundra. Some of you may remember hearing of a catastrophic volcanic eruption and lahar that killed 22,000 people in the 1985. This was the volcano. It was second worst volcanic disaster of 20th century and 4th deadliest since 1500 AD. Here is story on Wikipedia.

The tragic, heart wrenching story of a 13 year old girl who was trapped in the mud is here.

So it was an amazing experience to see such a rare bird on this famous volcano. It was spewing ash the whole time we were there.

Nevado del Ruiz Volcano - Colombia

There are 348 species of hummingbirds and I have photos of 118. They all can be seen here.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2017 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.

Bulletin 276 - Ecuador #10 - more Hummingbirds

This was a remarkable trip with 23 new species of hummingbirds photographed. So here are another 9.

The largest hummingbird is the 6.5" Giant Hummingbird. I saw it, but didn't get a photo before the bird flew away. The second largest hummer is the beautiful 6" Great Sapphirewing (Pterophanes cyanopterus). The male has blue wings and we saw several of them.

Great Sapphirewing - male

Another bird I love is the Collared Inca (Coeligena torquata). I had seen this bird on my previous Ecuador trip, but it is always a delight to see them. They are dark green appearing black with a white chest and white in the tail. I spent considerable time at San Isidro Lodge to get one hovering.

Collared Inca

His cousin is the rather drab Bronzy Inca (Coeligena coeligena).

Bronzy Inca

The male Purple-bibbed Whitetip (Urosticte benjamini) is all green with a small purple throat patch and white tips to the tail feathers.

Purple-bibbed Whitetip - male

Woodstars are small hummers 2.5 to 3.5 inches long. The male Purple-throated Woodstar (Calliphlox mitchelli) is green with a purple gorget. Most woodstars have white on the rump as well which helps in their ID.

Purple-throated Woodstar - male

The male White-bellied Woodstar (Chaetocercus mulsant) is green with a pink gorget and is mostly white underneath. Also just a glimpse of the white rump is visible.

White-bellied Woodstar - male

The male Tourmaline Sunangel (Heliangelus exortis) is all green with a small pink gorget. This on was sitting on a large flower stalk.

Tourmaline Sunangel - male

The last 2 species are probably the most spectacular of the trip. The 5" Sword-billed Hummingbird (Ensifera ensifera) is a target bird for all birders in South America. It has an amazing 4" bill and ehrn it comes to a feeder, the body seems so far away from the feeder.

Sword-billed Hummingbird

The 4" male Velvet-purple Coronet (Boissonneaua jardini) is glittering purple in good light. I took many photos before getting this one. In poor light the bird just looks black. This is the guides (Pablo Andrade) favorite hummer in Ecuador out of 130 species.

Velvet-purple Coronet - male

I have updated my hummingbird family photos and now have 111 species of the 348. You can browse them all at this link.

Happy birding and photography,

David McDonald
dkmmdpa@gmail.com

photos copyright 2006 - 2016 David McDonald

To have these trip reports sent to your email, please email me at the above address and ask to subscribe.