The golden-breasted puffleg (''Eriocnemis mosquera'') 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 "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 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 found in

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

and

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

.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 golden-breasted puffleg 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, at one time it was suggested that the northern and southern populations formed subspecies.Schulenberg, T. S. (2020). Golden-breasted Puffleg (''Eriocnemis mosquera''), 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.gobpuf1.01 retrieved March 15, 2022

Description

The golden-breasted puffleg is about long and weighs about . It has a straight black bill. The male has shining green upperparts with a bronzier green nape and rump. Its underparts are mostly glittering golden green. Its lower throat and upper breast are coppery bronze and the undertail

coverts A covert feather or tectrix on a bird is one of a set of feathers, called coverts (or ''tectrices''), which, as the name implies, cover other feathers. The coverts help to smooth airflow over the wings and tail. Ear coverts The ear coverts are sm ...

brownish. Its leg puffs are white. The tail is forked; its central feathers are blue-green and the outer two pairs dark green to blue-black. The female is slightly smaller and has somewhat greener undertail coverts but is otherwise similar to the male.

Distribution and habitat

The golden-breasted puffleg is found in the Central and Western Andes of Colombia with a few records in the Eastern Andes. It also occurs in much of the length of the Andes in Ecuador. The species inhabits the edges and clearings of stunted

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 f ...

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 ...

, and shrubby zones near treeline. In elevation in Colombia it ranges between but is usually found above . In Ecuador it mostly occurs between .

Behavior

Movement

The golden-breasted puffleg is suspected to make seasonal elevational movements but has not been documented doing so.

Feeding

The golden-breasted puffleg forages for nectar at low flowers, both while hovering and by clinging to the flower. It is "active and aggressive" defending feeding territories. No details of its preferred plants are known. It also feeds on small insects like other hummingbirds.

Breeding

Little is known about the golden-breasted puffleg'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 ...

. A nest discovered in November in Colombia was a cup made of moss and sticks lined with plant down, placed on the end of a slender branch under a rock overhang. An adult was on the nest so the observer assumed that it was incubating eggs.

Vocalization

The golden-breasted puffleg's calls are "''trit'' notes".

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 golden-breasted puffleg as being of Least Concern. Though it has a fairly small range and its population size is not known, the population is believed to be stable. No immediate threats have been identified. It is deemed common in Colombia and uncommon to fairly common in Ecuador. "Human activity has little short-term direct effect on Golden-breasted Puffleg, other than the local effects of habitat destruction".

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1273286

golden-breasted puffleg The golden-breasted puffleg (''Eriocnemis mosquera'') is a species of hummingbird in the "brilliants", tribe Heliantheini in subfamily Lesbiinae. It is found in Colombia and Ecuador.HBW and BirdLife International (2020) ''Handbook of the Birds ...

Birds of the Colombian Andes Birds of the Ecuadorian Andes

Taxonomy articles created by Polbot