Green-crowned Brilliant - BirdForum Opus

Male
Photo © by edenwatcher
Buenaventura, Ecuador, March 2006

Heliodoxa jacula

Identification

12–13 cm
Iridescent green plumage. The male has a (purplish) blue throat spot (often difficult to see). Male bill medium length but very straight with minimal curvature. Feathering extends forwards from the bill base. It frequently raises these upper feathers—those from the upper mandible to just in front of the eye. Female bill generally slightly curved. Both sexes have white post-ocular spot. The female has white underside with green spots in streaks, and prominent white malar stripe. Juvenile has rufous chin and malar. Both sexes shows a forked tail, male more than female, and with white tail corners in female; tail colour varies with location in males.

Distribution

Found in Central America and South America: Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador.

Taxonomy

Female
Photo © by rdavis
Northern Ecuador, October 2009

Subspecies

Three subspecies are recognized^[1]:

• H. j. henryi:

• Costa Rica and western Panama

• H. j. jacula:

• Eastern Panama and Andes of Colombia

• H. j. jamersoni:

• Andes of south-western Colombia and western Ecuador

Habitat

Wet subtropical and montane forests and forest edges. Observed at heights around 6000 ft.

Behaviour

Juvenile
Photo © by Stanley Jones
Alajuela Province, Costa Rica, March, 2007

Diet

Their diet consists mostly of nectar taken from long flower bracts from vines such as Marcgravia. Regularly seen at feeders.

Vocalisation

A repetitive kyew.

References

1. Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2014. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: Version 6.9., with updates to August 2014. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
2. Avibase
3. BF Member observations
4. Garrigues and Dean 2007. The birds of Costa Rica - a field guide. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0-8014-7373-9
5. Ridgely & Gwynne 1989. Birds of Panama. Princeton Paperbacks. ISBN 0691025126
6. Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive (retrieved December 2014)

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Green-crowned Brilliant. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 28 December 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Green-crowned_Brilliant

• 

  Photo © by Jim Crosswell
  Finca Oro, Costa Rica, January 2009

• 

  Juvenile
  Photo © by obasanmi
  Costa Rica, September 2009
  Click on photos to enlarge

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