The black inca (''Coeligena prunellei'') is a species of hummingbird in the "brilliants", tribe

Heliantheini Heliantheini is one of the two tribes that make up the subfamily Lesbiinae of the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The other tribe in the subfamily is Lesbiini. The informal name "brilliants" has been proposed for this group as it includes the ge ...

in subfamily

Lesbiinae Lesbiinae is one of the six subfamilies that make up the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The subfamily is divided into two tribes: Heliantheini ("brilliants") containing 14 genera and Lesbiini ("coquettes") containing 18 genera. Phylogeny A mo ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

to Colombia.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world'' Version 5. Available at: http://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip xls zipped 1 MBretrieved 27 May 2021

Taxonomy and systematics

In the mid-1800s the black inca was placed in genera ''Bourcieria'' and ''Lamproygia'' by different authors. By the early 1900s it and most other current members of genus ''Coeligena'' were placed in genus ''Helianthea''. The incas have been in their current placement since the mid-1900s. The black inca, bronzy inca (''C. coeligena''), and brown inca (''C. wilsoni'') are

sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...

.Remsen, J. V., Jr., J. I. Areta, E. Bonaccorso, S. Claramunt, A. Jaramillo, D. F. Lane, J. F. Pacheco, M. B. Robbins, F. G. Stiles, and K. J. Zimmer. Version 31 January 2022. A classification of the bird species of South America. American Ornithological Society. https://www.museum.lsu.edu/~Remsen/SACCBaseline.htm retrieved February 1, 2022Macana, D. C. and J. E. Zuluaga-Bonilla (2020). Black Inca (''Coeligena prunellei''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (T. S. Schulenberg, Editor). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.blainc1.01 retrieved 27 April 2022 The black inca is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispe ...

Description

The black inca is about long and weighs about . Both sexes have a long, straight, black bill and a white spot behind the eye. Adult males' upperparts are purplish black with dark metallic blue shoulders and a black forked tail. Their underparts are also dark purplish black with an iridescent blue-green

gorget A gorget , from the French ' meaning throat, was a band of linen wrapped around a woman's neck and head in the medieval period or the lower part of a simple chaperon hood. The term later described a steel or leather collar to protect the th ...

and a white patch on each side of the breast. Adult females are essentially the same as males but duller, with a longer bill, less blue on the shoulders, and a less forked tail. Immatures are duller than the adults and do not have a gorget.

Distribution and habitat

The black inca is endemic to Colombia. It is found on the west slope of the Eastern Andes from southeastern

Santander Santander may refer to: Places * Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain * Santander Department, a department of Colombia * Santander State, former state of Colombia * Santander de Quilichao, a m ...

and western Boyacá departments south into western Cundinamarca Department, and also on both slopes of Serranía de los Yariguíes in Santander. It mostly inhabits the interior of humid

montane forest Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial ...

, especially those dominated by oaks, but males are also found in fragmented forest and other human-modified landscapes. In elevation it ranges between .

Behavior

Movement

The black inca's movements, if any, are not known.

Feeding

The black inca mostly forages for nectar by

trap-lining In ethology and behavioral ecology, trap-lining or traplining is a feeding strategy in which an individual visits food sources on a regular, repeatable sequence, much as trappers check their lines of traps. Traplining is usually seen in species ...

, visiting a circuit of a wide variety of flowering plants, though it occasionally defends concentrated flower patches. It nectars at mid-levels within forest and low levels at the edges. It prefers tubular red and yellow flowers such as those of genera ''Fuchsia'', ''Bomarea'', ''Aetanthus'', ''Aphelandra'', ''Palicourea'', ''Psammisia'', and ''Thibaudia.'' It prefers native plants when they are abundant but in one study frequented plants of genus ''Abutilon'' and other introduced species. In addition to feeding on nectar, the black inca gleans small

arthropod Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...

s from foliage.

Breeding

The black inca's breeding season is not well known but could be as long as from June to February. Only two nests are known. They were cups of tree fern scales cemented with spider silk and lined with plant down. Both were in the interior of oak forest and placed between above the ground. The species' incubation times and time to fledging are not known.

Vocalization

The black inca is generally quiet but does produce short ''ick'' or ''pip'' notes.

Status

The IUCN originally assessed the black inca as Threatened. It changed the assessement to Vulnerable in 1994, to Endangered in 2000, and back to Vulnerable in 2008. Its population is estimated at fewer than 10,000 mature individuals and is believed to be decreasing. Colombian authorities consider it endangered. About 90% of the forest habitat in its small range has been cleared for settlement or agriculture and what remains is fragmented.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q653965 black inca Birds of the Colombian Andes Endemic birds of Colombia black inca black inca Taxonomy articles created by Polbot