The fiery-throated metaltail or fire-throated metaltail (''Metallura eupogon'') is a species of

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the biological family Trochilidae. With about 361 species and 113 genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but the vast majority of the species are found in the tropics aro ...

in the "coquettes", tribe

Lesbiini Lesbiini is one of the two tribes that make up the subfamily Lesbiinae in the hummingbird family Trochilidae. The other tribe is Heliantheini (brilliants). The informal name "coquettes" has been proposed for this group as the largest genus, ''L ...

of subfamily

Lesbiinae Lesbiinae is one of the six subfamily, subfamilies that make up the hummingbird family (biology), family Trochilidae. The subfamily is divided into two Tribe (biology), tribes: Heliantheini ("brilliants") containing 14 genera and Lesbiini ("coqu ...

. It is endemic to

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

.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

The fiery-throated metaltail 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 "unispec ...

. However, what are now the violet-throated metaltail (''M. baroni'') and neblina metaltail (''M. odomae'') were at times treated as subspecies of the fiery-throated.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, 2022Heindl, M. and P. F. D. Boesman (2020). Fire-throated Metaltail (''Metallura eupogon''), version 1.0. In Birds of the World (J. del Hoyo, A. Elliott, J. Sargatal, D. A. Christie, and E. de Juana, Editors). Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY, USA. https://doi.org/10.2173/bow.fitmet1.01 retrieved March 6, 2022

Description

The fiery-throated metaltail is about long and weighs about . It has a medium length, straight, black bill. The adult male is almost entirely yellowish olive-green with bronzy overtones. Its slightly forked tail is iridescent sky blue with a green tinge on its upper side and glittering yellow-green on its underside. Its

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 thro ...

is orange. The adult female is similar the male but its gorget is smaller. Juveniles are similar to the female.

Distribution and habitat

The fiery-throated metaltail is found on the eastern slope of the central Andes of Peru, from just south of the

Huallaga River The Huallaga River is a tributary of the Marañón River, part of the Amazon Basin. Old names for this river include ''Guallaga'' and ''Rio de los Motilones''. The Huallaga is born on the slopes of the Andes in central Peru and joins the Marañón ...

in the

Department of Huánuco Huánuco () is a department and region in central Peru. It is bordered by the La Libertad, San Martín, Loreto and Ucayali regions in the north, the Ucayali Region in the east, the Pasco Region in the south and the Lima and Ancash regions in ...

south to the

Apurímac River The Apurímac River ( que, Apurimaq mayu; es, Río Apurímac, ; from Quechua ''apu'' 'divinity' and ''rimaq'' 'oracle, talker') rises from glacial meltwater of the ridge of the Mismi, a mountain in the Arequipa Province in the south-western m ...

in the

Department of Cuzco Cusco, also spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu suyu ), is a regions of Peru, department and region in Peru and is the fourth largest department in the country, after Department of Madre de Dios, Madre de Dios, Department of Ucayali, Ucayali, and Depar ...

. Like most of the metaltails, the species inhabits the edges of dwarf and

elfin forest Dwarf forest, elfin forest, or pygmy forest is an uncommon ecosystem featuring miniature trees, inhabited by small species of fauna such as rodents and lizards. They are usually located at high elevations, under conditions of sufficient air humi ...

s and ''

páramo Páramo () can refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

'', moist landscapes characterized by shrubby growth and small trees. It also occurs in glades within the forest. In elevation it ranges between and is most common above .

Behavior

Movement

The fiery-throated metaltail is believed to be sedentary but some seasonal elevational movement is possible.

Feeding

The fiery-throated metaltail's diet and feeding practices are not known. They are assumed to be similar to those of other metaltails, which feed on nectar from a variety of flowering plants and also catch small

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

s by sallies from a perch; males defend feeding territories.

Breeding

The fiery-throated metaltail's breeding

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonality, seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as environmental factor, habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples includ ...

and nest have not been documented. Its breeding season appears to include June and July.

Vocalization

The fiery-throated metaltail's chase call is "a descending series of 3–6 squeaky notes, followed by a repeated, buzzy, jumbled phrase, 'trt-tsee-seee-seee-sew..trr-tsee-tsew..trr-tsee-tsew..'."

Status

The

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

has assessed the fiery-throated metaltail as being of Least Concern. Its population size is not known and is believed to be decreasing. It is " esently not at risk due to its wide distribution and its generalized ecology... utmay be vulnerable because of its small range" where burning of ''páramo'' to create grazing pasture is a threat.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1265775 fiery-throated metaltail Birds of the Peruvian Andes Endemic birds of Peru fiery-throated metaltail Taxonomy articles created by Polbot