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Berylline Hummingbird - BirdForum Opus

Photo © by UncleGus_24
Madera Canyon, Arizona June 2009
Saucerottia beryllina

Amazilia beryllina

Identification

Male

  • Emerald green
  • Purple rump
  • Some purple wing and tail feathers
  • Bright green gorget
  • Black bill (lower mandible has red base)
  • Undertail coverts cinnamon-brown

Female: duller with pale grey belly and undertail coverts.

Distribution

Resident year round in Mexico to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, and a rare summer visitor to southeast Arizona and New Mexico.

Taxonomy

This is a polytypic species[1 consisting of 5 subspecies.

Subspecies

  • S. b. viola:
  • Oak-pine woods of northwestern Mexico (Sonora to Guerrero)
  • S. b. beryllina:
  • Eastern and central Mexico (Veracruz to central Oaxaca)
  • S. b. lichtensteini:
  • Montane slopes of southern Mexico (western Chiapas)
  • S. b. sumichrasti:
  • Coastal mountains of southern Mexico (central and southern Chiapas)
  • S. b. devillei:

Habitat

Foothills and highlands, oak and pine woodlands and edges, oak scrub and clearings, plantations.

Behaviour

Breeding

It builds a nest of plant fibres and spider webs, covered with lichens, in a tree or shrub. The 2 white eggs are incubated by the female for about 14 days.

Diet

The diet includes nectar and insects.

Vocalisation

A series of hoarse, high twitters sirr, kirr-I-rr, kirr-I-rr; also a buzzing drrzzzzt.

References

  1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, T. A. Fredericks, J. A. Gerbracht, D. Lepage, S. M. Billerman, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2022. The eBird/Clements checklist of Birds of the World: v2022. Downloaded from https://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
  1. Howell & Webb, 1995. A guide to the birds of Mexico and northern Central America. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198540124
  2. Hummingbirds.net
  3. Whatbird

Recommended Citation

External Links

GSearch checked for 2020 platform.

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